The current stage of society’s development is characterized by the increasing role of the information sphere, which is an important factor in public life, largely determining the prospects for the successful implementation of socio-political and economic transformations of Russian society.

One of the most important tasks of our time is the fight against computer crime and cyberterrorism. A competent policy of training national personnel can significantly counteract the growth of crimes in the field of information technology.

The Information Security Doctrine of the Russian Federation refers the development and improvement of the training system for personnel working in the field of information security to the priority tasks of state policy.

Staffing tasks were included in a separate section in the List of priority areas of scientific research in the field of information security of the Russian Federation. Under the leadership of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, in cooperation with interested federal executive authorities, the main directions of a multi-level training system in the field of information security have been formed in the country.

Effective development of the megalopolis, and the whole country as a whole, is impossible without the creation of special information protection services staffed by highly qualified personnel in state or other structures. Recently, the problem of staffing information security has attracted increased attention.

The basic principles of training in the field of information security, taking into account the requirements of the present time, can be formulated as follows:

• the level of theoretical knowledge should approach the international level;
• training should be focused on the acquisition of practical skills to ensure information security in crisis conditions;
• significant attention should be paid to the issues of ensuring the security and sustainable development of the metropolis.

Since modern security systems are becoming more complex and complex both in terms of goals and in terms of the methods and means of protection used, it is necessary to expand the range of educational specialties for information protection. Personnel training should be carried out comprehensively at several levels:

• training of young specialists on the basis of school education (training period — 5-5.5 years);
• training of information security specialists on the basis of higher technical education (training period — 2-2.5 years);
• retraining of personnel at short-term courses to improve the qualification of specialists and heads of departments (training period — 2-4 weeks);
• training of specialists on the basis of secondary technical education through college on the basis of 9 classes (training period — 4-5 years);
• training of highly qualified specialists through postgraduate studies and defense of dissertations in specialized councils.

In Russia, the issues of training personnel in information security on a national scale were developed when the interuniversity scientific and technical program «Methods and technical means of ensuring information security» was formed. A large team of performers was formed, which included 15 of the largest universities in Russia, the main one among which was the Moscow Institute of Engineering and Physics.

Currently, specialized training in the field of security in the Russian information technology market is provided by both training centers, for which this area is a priority, and training centers specializing in training on the entire spectrum of problems in the field of information technology and telecommunications. The subjects of the training are both authorized foreign courses of international training centers for information protection, and author’s courses of domestic training centers developed taking into account the specifics of the Russian market.

Analysis of the information presented on the websites of leading Russian universities engaged in training specialists in the field of «Information security» has revealed a number of conditions, the implementation of which will ensure high-quality training of specialists in the field of information protection:

• Ensuring the close connection of the educational process with scientific research in the field of information security. As you know, the quality of education is largely determined by the depth of relevant scientific research. The extreme knowledge intensity of information technologies requires the involvement of a large number of specialists and powerful technical support. The rapid development of information technologies encourages universities to intensively accumulate their own experience, create their own scientific schools.
• Material and technical support of the educational process. Additional difficulties in the training of information protection specialists arise due to the rigidity of existing requirements for the material and technical support of the educational process. Practical and laboratory classes should be conducted in specially equipped rooms with the use of modern computing technology. To provide classes in the cycle of specialization disciplines, special technical means are needed, the acquisition of which is simply not possible for most universities.
• Provision of the educational process with pedagogical personnel of higher qualification. The solution to this problem is seen in the organization of short-term refresher courses, seminars and conferences on the exchange of experience. The lack of highly qualified personnel requires continuous monitoring of the quality of education.

The analysis of training programs for specialists in the field of information security of the megalopolis allows us to highlight the following features of training:

• a large range of areas of training and retraining in information security in training centers;
• the focus of training on in-depth theoretical training of specialists in the most general aspects of security and familiarization with a relatively full range of methods and systems of information protection;
• emphasis on the practical orientation of training (within the framework of educational programs, much attention is paid to laboratory work and practical classes);
• focus on the study of specific products and the rules of their operation;
• high mobility of the content of the courses being taught (rapid reaction to new information security technologies);
• conducting training courses on the regulatory framework for information protection;
• close contacts with Western leading centers.

An important positive aspect of training specialists in the field of information security in the metropolis is the monitoring of the quality of education of information security specialists.

The problem of improving the training of specialists in the field of information security is multifaceted. It is possible to solve it successfully only comprehensively, based on a systematic approach.

One of the important factors in improving the quality of training of specialists in the field of information security should be measures to tighten the selection regime for specialties related to the protection of information technologies.

The following ways of professional selection technology development can be proposed:

• creation of reference models of a student and a specialist in a multidimensional space of professionally important qualities;
• reflection in the content of professionally important qualities of the cognitive abilities of the individual, adaptive capabilities in the professional orientation of the candidate;
• development of an algorithm for assessing the proximity of real and reference samples of the candidate with the calculation of both the generalized integral indicator and the levels of development of the components of each indicator.

As an initial approximation to the candidate ‘s reference model , the following content can be proposed:

• a list of the main professional qualities that are essential for successful professional training at the university;
• the range of changes in the level of formation of qualities, within which the success of training does not decrease;
• the level of development of each quality.

The concept of improving the learning process provides for the solution of the following tasks:

• formation of a legal culture in the field of information technology,
• adjustment of existing training programs,
• introduction of new academic disciplines.

To reflect modern achievements in the field of information protection, it is necessary to regularly review the content of special academic disciplines. Currently, it is advisable to supplement the training programs for specialists in the field of information security with disciplines on the regulatory framework of information technology and on the strategy and tactics of information warfare.

Computer crimes are one of the ways of conducting information warfare with the aim of ideological and psychological influence on the consciousness of an individual, social groups, inciting ethnic and religious hostility. Therefore, when training specialists in the field of information protection, it is necessary to include issues related to methodological principles of conducting information operations. An information security specialist is required to know the strategy and tactics of conducting information warfare, the damaging factors of information weapons and methods of countering information operations.

One of the ways to improve the process of professional development is the certification of persons engaged in the training (retraining) of personnel. They must have mandatory specialized training and teaching experience.

Thus, it can be concluded that the existing system of personnel training does not yet fully meet the needs of the metropolis, and the new tasks that arise before it dictate the need for both updating the content of education and improving the organization of education.