Why would identity theft criminals be happy about millions of unfilled job openings? Because in the case of cybersecurity, it means that the bad guys currently have the advantage. Not good — unless you or your family members are considering a career in cybersecurity.
Just as the shortage of doctors and nurses has been a challenge for the health-care industry, a new and alarming shortage of “information security professionals” is a wake-up call for businesses, educational institutions and consumers worldwide according to three recent reports.
The Cisco 2014 Annual Security Report warns that the worldwide shortage of information security (or InfoSec) professionals is at 1 million openings, even as cyberattacks and data breaches increase each year.
And according to the 2015 (ISC) Global Information Security Workforce Study, “the information security workforce shortfall is widening as 62 percent of the survey respondents stated that their organizations have too few information security professionals.”
It’s not for lack of money, but a result of “an insufficient pool of suitable candidates is causing this shortfall,” according to the study.
Frost & Sullivan, a consulting, technology and market research firm, estimates the shortfall in the global information security workforce will reach 1.5 million in five years.
In addition, the Norwich University Online Information Assurance Program offered sobering statistics on the current state of information security:
• The demand for cybersecurity pros has grown more than 3.5 times faster than the demand for other IT jobs over the past five years, and cybersecurity jobs have increased more than 12 times faster than the demand for all other non-IT jobs.
• There was a 73 percent increase in InfoSec job postings between 2007 and 2012 in the U.S., versus six percent in all jobs.
•Industries reporting shortages of InfoSec staff include: Government, 36 percent; manufacturing, 29 percent; financial services, 28 percent; retail/wholesale, 27 percent; health care, 22 percent.
Computerworld’s reports that for 2013-14, the average pay had increased by 6.7 percent for chief security officers to $165,600; by 5.3 percent for InfoSec managers to $118,484; and by 3.5 percent for InfoSec specialists, to $90,696.
So what does all this mean to small business, consumers, all of us?
– Consumer ID-theft and business data-breach events are not going away.
– Cyberattacks and data breach events are happening more often.
– Regulatory requirements such as state and federal breach notification laws are forcing all businesses to increase their information security best practices.
– Institutions of higher education need to create and expand cybereducation programs and work to attract new students to them.
– Information-security threats change so often that it’s hard for a business to keep up.
– The “Internet of Things” will increase consumer ID-theft and business data-breach events.
Bottom line, the information-security marketplace is a leading job- and growth opportunity for anyone who is interested, and the unfilled jobs in this space are currently an advantage to ID-theft criminals.
Mark’s most important: Consider a career in cybersecurity and take seriously the ID-theft threat resulting from more than 1 million unfulfilled cybersecurity jobs
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