Cybersecurity: Skills shortage looms
A survey of more than 19,000 cybersecurity professionals worldwide by the Center for Cyber Safety and Education shows that the cybersecurity industry will be short about 1.8 million employees by 2022. The results also show that 70% of companies in the Germany, Austria and Switzerland region do not have enough IT security staff to meet their needs.
The latest results of the "Global Information Security Workforce" study (cf. here) suggest that the skills gap is already impacting DACH companies, with 45% of companies saying the lack of cybersecurity staff has significant consequences for their customers. A similar percentage warned that this could lead to cybersecurity breaches. 37% of DACH companies expect to expand their workforce by more than 16% in the next 12 months, but see themselves hampered by the skills shortage.
Poorly prepared for GDPR
The data also indicates that the skills shortage goes hand in hand with poor preparation of many companies in the DACH region for the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will include a mandatory 48-hour window for publishing data breaches from May 2018.
24% of respondents in the DACH region currently predict their companies would take over eight days to remediate a breach should their systems or data be compromised by hackers - significantly longer than the required data breach disclosure window.
Millennials in front of closed door
Millennials, also Generation Y mentioned, are crucial to addressing the employment gap as the fastest growing target group. In the DACH region, however, companies are failing to hire Millennials, with only 6% of respondents saying they are recruiting college graduates. The data also shows that only 15% of cybersecurity industry employees are currently under the age of 35, meaning the pipeline of talent entering the industry at a younger age is forced to dry up.
According to the data, employers are slamming the door in the face of much of the Millennial generation, refusing to hire and train inexperienced beginners. Only 7% of respondents said the greatest need for new employees is at the entry level. And 73% say prior cybersecurity experience is an important factor in their hiring decisions.
The lack of diversification could become a vicious cycle as it discourages younger generations from pursuing careers in the cybersecurity industry. Yet the study shows that Millennials are far more diverse than previous generations and are significantly more attracted to jobs that represent the target group.
Most important findings
The results prove that SMEs are suffering from being squeezed out of the cybersecurity talent market. Only 25% of all respondents, whether Millenials or experienced specialists, work for German SMEs, while a staggering 61% of cybersecurity professionals are employed by larger organizations with over 2,500 employees.
Summary of key findings:
- There will be a global cybersecurity workforce shortfall of 1.8 million by 2022; an increase of 20% since the 2015 GISWS report (1.5 million by 2020)
- 55% of respondents said the main reason for the skills shortage is the difficulty in finding the qualified staff they need, so Millenials are already falling through the required cracks here
- Only 1% of German information security professionals are under 30 years old
- Only 6% of respondents said their organization also recruits college graduates
- 45% of respondents said the shortage of skilled security workers was impacting their customers (respondents who answered 4 and 5 on a scale of 1-5)
- 53% of respondents said the shortage of safety staff had a serious impact on safety violations (respondents who answered 4 and 5 on a scale of 1-5)
- Nearly a quarter of respondents (24%) said their companies would need at least eight days to repair a breach if their systems or data were compromised by hackers.
Source: Kafka Kommunikation GmbH & Co. KG
