60% of global leaders struggle to recruit cyber security talent due to a skills shortage

80% of organisations suffered one or more breaches that could attribute to a lack of cyber security skills and/or awareness. It’s no secret that companies are facing a huge cyber security talent shortage. Unfortunately, speaking about the cyber security skills gap has not increased the cyber workforce and will not. Most cyber security professionals (95%) believe the skills gap has not improved over the past few years, and nearly half (44%) believe it has gotten worse, according to research from Information Systems Security Association (ISSA).

Cyber Magazine reported there are around 1.1 million people employed in cyber security in the US, however this is over 700,000 unfilled positions currently available. Worldwide, the cyber workforce shortfall is approximately 3.5 million people.

The Fortinet, 2022 Cybersecurity Skills Gap Global Research Report saw 60% of global leaders struggle to recruit cyber security talent and 52% struggle to retain qualified talent. 67% agree there is a shortage of qualified cyber security candidates which creates risks for their organisation with 76% board of directors now recommends increases in IT and cyber security headcount. 88% reporting that their board now asks questions specifically about cyber security.

To understand the four main issues on why cyber security leaders, see a skills shortage within their organisation, we have dived into this – 87% Of Cyber Security Leaders See A Skills Shortage Within Their Organisation.

There’s no way to bridge the cyber security skills gap overnight, but organisations can start making progress today by doing the following three things:

1. 1. Tap into underrepresented communities.

Having a diverse and inclusive workplace is important not only ethically but also for improving employee morale, boosting innovation, and enhancing business success. Therefore, prioritise outreach to overlooked communities, where you can educate members of these communities on the incredible variety of opportunities in cyber security and show them how they can join the workforce. We have set out practical steps that organisations can take to embed diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

1. 2. Build skills primarily in-house

Organisations can tap into a much larger pool of workers if they relax job requirements and instead plan on building cyber skills internally by providing training, education, and certification support for new employees to help get them up to speed. Enable new graduates and people transitioning from other careers that have an interest in and capacity for cyber security to learn and grow.

1. 3. Support your existing talent

Burnout is rampant today at many organisations, especially when there is such a shortage of skilled people, it’s easy for anyone unhappy to leave and find a better opportunity elsewhere. However, there are also critical cyber security needs that must be met. Here are some strategies for supporting your existing workforce so they’ll be less likely to leave:

• • Whenever feasible, automate routine tasks — especially those that are repetitive and boring or high stress. This helps reduce your labour needs and gives your employees interesting, lower-stress work to do.
  • Consider using managed security services, particularly for off-hours monitoring, analysis, and incident response. Small organisations may want to outsource most of their security services altogether to reduce their need for dedicated cyber security staff and instead train their IT personnel to also handle occasional cyber security tasks.
  • For particularly stressful or demanding positions, consider the possibility of job rotation. An example is rotating security operations personnel to a non-operations position after 12 or 18 months. This can help prevent burnout and allows people to build additional skills, making them more valuable to your organisation.
  • When your employees are taking time off, sick leave or otherwise, let them be off work. Everyone needs a break from work; expecting employees to keep checking in with work while they’re off – and especially being on call or performing operational support — is unfair to them and will certainly foster resentment. This may be a major culture change for your staff but it’s likely to be well worth it, both for retaining existing staff and for attracting new employees.

1. 4. Working with a specialist recruiter

As the Cyber Security market continues to grow, there remains a constant need for exceptional cyber professionals and as such, the market has continued to have a constant flow of new positions. Utilising a specialist Cyber Security recruiter, has significant benefits for clients and candidates. In our recent article we highlighted some of the reasons that you ought to use a specialist recruiter and the benefits that you will gain from having done so.