pandemic the demand for such jobs has risen more than ever before― in the USA the demand for Cybersecurity professionals is more than the average demand of all the jobs across all the sectors tracked by the Bureau of Labour Statistics. Amid the pandemic, Cybersecurity has become one of the growing concerns for IT enterprises. “In the wake of COVID-19, more and more enterprises have started operating remotely by embracing cloud-based technologies, including Cloud for better storage and Cloud Computing for much faster, agile, and scalable IT solutions. “
Upskilling, Credentials & Soft Skills
Closing The Cyber Workforce Gap
The demand for Cybersecurity jobs is increasing at a rapid pace and with the current crisis of the COVID-19
IT enterprises are vulnerable to security breaches; most security threats for businesses fall under one of these five categories: Phishing, Pharming, Social Engineering, Credential Harvesting, and DNS Hijacking & Spoofing. According to the FBI, on average, a whopping 300,000 complaints of security breaches are recorded annually in the United States of America. For the Year 2018, the FBI reports that the annual losses resulting out of security complaints accounted for an astronomical sum of US$ 2.7 billion!
Protecting the crown jewels of the IT Enterprise regardless of the environment in which it is operating―on-prem, in private or in public or hybrid cloud environment, is paramount for ensuring the success and business profitability of an organization. So, how are organisations able to combat such security threats by attackers in the current times? They protect themselves and their customers by implementing state-of-the-art Identity Access Management solutions (IAM) solutions underpinning Identity Access, Identity Governance, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), Federated SSO, Data Governance, & more.
3 Main Trends of The Tech Industry For The Year 2020
The tech industry is dominated by three main trends―a surge in the spends of IT Enterprises on digital infrastructure—a growing demand for cyber skills over basic skills―sophisticated tools for measuring the performance of cybersecurity efforts. What needs to be noted is that the pandemic has had a minimalistic impact on the cybersecurity workforce of IT Enterprises, but the cybersecurity domain is grappling with persistent challenges with hiring new cybersecurity workers and retaining the existing ones.
That being said, it is imperative for IT Enterprises to close the prevailing cyber workforce gaps to keep the business moving forward. Things like understaffing, unfilled cybersecurity positions, high turnaround time to fill a position, and applicants with poor credentials and qualifications are some of the problems that need to be addressed.
ISACA 2021 Survey Findings
A recent ISACA 2021 survey involving 3600 Cybersecurity professionals has revealed some startling findings of the current cyber workforce gaps and has concluded that the cybersecurity workforce is minimally impacted by the ongoing pandemic. Get glued to your computer screens to get a bird’s eye view of the survey report! Read on.
According to the survey, there are a lot of cyber workforce gaps, 61% of the survey respondents said that their cyber workforce is understaffed; 55% have said that their organization has open positions that need to be filled; 50% have confirmed that their applicants are underqualified for the cybersecurity role; 44% of them said that the turnaround time to fill a cybersecurity job vacancy is approximately 3 to 6 months.
How Can Organizations Close These Cyber Workforce Gaps?
The billion-dollar question that we need to ask ourselves now is “How can organizations close these cyber workforce gaps?” The answer to this is pretty simple: IT Enterprises can close these cyber workforce gaps by adhering to the following best practices.
- upskilling the workforce with the latest Cybersecurity technologies.
- training and education programs for securing top credentials.
- acquisition of soft skills such as communication skills, critical thinking, leadership skills & relationship management
One of the biggest advantages off upskilling is it mitigates the overall expenditure of recruitment for businesses. Upskilling the existing workforce with the in-demand Cybersecurity skills to fill a cybersecurity job vacancy via corporate training and education programs turns out a lot more economical than finding a new hire for the same position. One of the best ways of implementing training & education programs for your cybersecurity team is to partner with renowned Training Academies like InfoGravity, LLC. The perks associated with this approach are many, a few among them which are noteworthy are:
- there is already a course curriculum that‘s designed by the industry leaders.
- tailor-made personalized training programs that fit well with your Enterprise requirement.
- leverage the years of your partner’s cybersecurity expertise.
Staff gaps And Cyber Attacks Are Directly Proportional
Staff gaps and cyberattacks are interdependent: the more the number of cyberattacks, the more likelihood of the IT Enterprise experiencing challenges associated with understaffing & retention of cyber workgroups.
Hiring & Skills Gap Challenges Are More Rampant Among Recent Graduates
The ISACA survey also suggests that there are many persistent challenges associated with hiring new information security personnel. This is especially true among recent graduates as most of them have a shortage of skill sets in the technical realm of Cybersecurity. According to the survey, 50% of the respondents felt that the applicants did not possess the adequate qualifications for fulfilling the job responsibilities. Interestingly, the survey confirms that only 27% of the respondents agreed that the recent graduates who applied for cybersecurity jobs were credit-worthy of having the right qualifications for the job they applied for while another 58% strongly felt that these fresh graduates needed additional entry-level training or bachelor’s or master’s degree in cybersecurity to meet the job requirements.
The survey also revealed that respondents look for three things before they zero in on candidates and deem them fit for the cybersecurity role: real-time cybersecurity experience, adequate credentials, & prior hands-on training experience. Another notable revelation of the survey is the top three skill gaps of the cybersecurity professionals:
- Soft skills (56% of respondents agree with this)
- Security controls implementation (36% of respondents agree with this)
- Software development related topics (33% of respondents agree with this)
Organisations Are able to Bridge The Skill Gaps By
- Offering relevant cybersecurity training to even non-technical staff who want to switch their careers to IT.
- Employing additional temporary resources like contract employees to get the work done faster.
- Reskilling their existing workforce via training programs.
- Automation via the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence)/ML (Machine Learning).
In conclusion upskilling is something that organisations cannot afford to skip; it is essential for closing the cyber workforce gaps and for staying in sync with the next generation IT skills; we want to emphasize that upskilling the workforce eventually results in the employees acquiring new credentials that are quintessential for having a rewarding career in Cybersecurity.