EDITOR’S QUESTION
HOW IS THE
CYBERSKILLS
SHORTAGE HAVING
AN IMPACT ON
WORKFORCES AND
DO YOU SEE THIS
CHANGING?
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W
e now live in a digital age in
which everyone and everything is
connected and interwoven. With
each passing year, the virtual society that’s
evolved on the Internet becomes more
entwined with the real one, changing the
way we engage socially, find and procure our
goods and services and acquire information
and knowledge. Growth and innovation
opportunities abound for organisations
eager to secure their rightful place in this
digital world by increasing visibility and
accessibility to customers and driving down
operational costs.
However, there is an underbelly to this digital
society; those individuals and groups whose
moral compass points in a different direction
and unfortunately, the skills of those tasked
with protecting this borderless online space
are lagging behind those of the threat actors
seeking to exploit it.
According to a state of the industry survey
conducted by RiskIQ last year, organisations
are ramping up spending in the hopes of
battling rapidly-escalating threats to their
digital presence, i.e. websites, mail servers,
social landing pages and mobile apps, but
are coming up short in their ability to prevent
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INTELLIGENTCIO
hacks and data breaches. The culprit for this
shortfall is a troubling shortage of skilled staff
that can help stem the tide of these threats.
Overwhelmed by the scale and tenacity
of threat campaigns run by experienced
operators who leverage vast swaths of digital
infrastructure like domains, IP addresses
and compromised assets, security teams are
struggling to put the right people, processes
and systems in place, despite increasing
spend on cybersecurity on average.
Amidst the continual occurrence of high-
profile data breaches, recent research shows
that the shortage of cybersecurity talent has
become a global crisis.
According to Cybersecurity Ventures, there
will be 3.5 million open cybersecurity
jobs by 2021. ESG’s annual global survey
of the state of IT once again identified
cybersecurity as the most significant area,
with 51% of respondents claiming their
organisation had a problematic shortage.
Without the right tools and training to use
them, a lack of experienced staff to monitor
and protect organisations from threat
campaigns such as malvertising, phishing
and state-sponsored attacks will only get
worse as businesses continue to expand their
digital presence in the pursuit of growing
their business.
Tackling this shortage head-on is crucial.
Getting young people interested in the field
and its rewarding work (not to mention
alluring compensation) through education
initiatives is vital, as is government agencies,
regulatory bodies and academia providing
universal standards for businesses and
opportunities for young people to acquire
the skills needed to enter the field. However,
this will take time, something we as an
industry don’t have.
For now, the goal should be empowering the
professionals who have already answered
the call by arming them with technology
that acts like a digital ‘mech suit’ that
supercharges their output so that their
organisations have the chance to thrive
in digital channels, despite this skills gap.
Technology that combines advanced
Internet data reconnaissance and analytics
acts as a force multiplier that enables
fewer, less-skilled employees to expedite
investigations, understand digital attack
surfaces, assess risk and take action against
threats with the skill and efficiency of a
much larger and more experienced group.
www.intelligentcio.com