Nah, he has a PhD from Concordia’s individualized program, supervised by professors from both Theological Studies and Information System Engineering. But it’s true that he’s not coming at this from a cybersecurity perspective, he’s an extremism researcher.

I wouldn’t rely on him to evaluate how good someone is at exploits and so on. I do respect his research skills and his ability to evaluate weird cult manifestos.

What degree does one need to earn first in order to be a "cyber security specialist"?

This coming from Gyudin, who cites no credentials and is not a real journalism specialist. See? Real easy to discredit someone by credentialism. Instead, you can read his article and take apart his points, since you're unsatisfied by his interpretation