The ISACA, 2016 Cybersecurity Snapshot released in 2017, discusses the attitudes of businesses to the US Cybersecurity Act and the threats, issues and opportunities facing cybersecurity professionals. The findings make it clear there is concern about the growing number and severity of cyber threats and consequently, the likelihood of such an attack disrupting critical infrastructure such as electrical and water supplies.
Whilst organisations want to act to mitigate the risks, the ISACA report highlights some clear challenges:
- 94% of organizations hiring cybersecurity professionals in 2016 expect it will be difficult to find skilled candidates
- 84% of organizations believe half or fewer of applicants for open security jobs are qualified
These findings are further backed up by a report from Robert Half focusing on cybersecurity in the UK, and notes that 77% of UK of UK CIOs say they will face more security threats in the next five years due to a shortage of IT security talent.
“The aggressive increase in cyberattacks worldwide is feeding a growing chasm between demand and supply in the cybersecurity talent wars.” credit=”Eddie Schwartz, CISA, CISM, CISSP-ISSEP, PMP, international vice president of ISACA and president and COO of WhiteOps”
“If companies want to stay abreast of industry developments and efficiently deal with IT security, they need to assess which expertise is missing in-house and either invest in training programmes for existing IT professionals or hire additional IT security experts.” credit=”Phil Sheridan, Senior Marketing Director at Robert Half”
A proactive approach is required
In both cases it is clear a proactive approach is required to begin to bridge the gap between the demand and supply for cybersecurity talent. This will entail investing in the skills of existing staff as well as hiring new candidates.
SkillsTX encounters organisations who do see this trend, and others who are potentially less impacted. In either case, the SkillsTX toolset provides a rich set of features and the perfect way to formally assess security skills across an organisation and consequently enable it to say with conviction that you have the skills required to address the need.
Version 7 of the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) provides an excellent foundation for assessing cybersecurity skills. Secondly it provides the ability to develop cybersecurity role profiles through the use of detailed descriptions of skills and responsibilities to reflect the competencies required.
SkillsTX includes all the SFIA Version 7 definitions and powerful tools to help you assess your organisation and identify the skills you need to develop or hire.
Coupled with powerful Role Profile, Job Description Creation and Position Matching modules, the SkillsTX platform provides the perfect starting point for strategically analysing your cyber security needs.
