Organizations are Facing Cybersecurity Workforce Shortage Globally

The latest report from the Cybersecurity Workforce Study from ISC2 reveals that the world is facing a considerable cybersecurity workforce shortage; even at  currently 2.8 million cybersecurity professionals worldwide

Cyber security is one of the most prominent concerns organizations are combating in today’s digital age. There has been a rapid increase in the number of cyber risks across the globe. At the same time, organizations worldwide are struggling to find talented professionals who can fight against these cyber risks.

The latest report from the Cybersecurity Workforce Study from ISC2 reveals that the world is facing a considerable cybersecurity workforce shortage. There are currently 2.8 million cybersecurity professionals worldwide, the report found; against the current estimated need for cybersecurity professionals that stands at 4.07 million.

According to the ISC2 report, not a lot has been done to address the issue of the cyber security workforce shortage. In the US, there are around 8 lakh cyber security professionals, which is nowhere close to the number of cybersecurity jobs needed to protect government agencies, Fortune 500 companies, and small and mid-sized businesses.

The report stated that as per 65% of cybersecurity professionals, their organizations are facing a cybersecurity workforce shortage. Around 50% of the respondents noted that organizational training budgets would be increasing over the next year. As per the report, talent retention is a constant struggle in the present labor market, which is rigid. There would soon be a huge shortage of professionals can as the number and severity of cyber attacks intensify.

Furthermore, the report offers a few solutions for dealing with the IT talent crunch and boosting overall cyber defense capabilities. There are four different strategies that organizations can use to build and retain cybersecurity teams.

1. Organizations can go the extra mile to highlight relevant training and professional development opportunities. They should consider employee satisfaction and long-term workforce retention. For a stronger cybersecurity team, companies need to provide the type of training and development opportunities that employees want.
2. Companies need to broaden their casting policies while searching for talent. They should look out for candidates beyond the traditional background and be more open to the idea of recruiting the ones from unrelated industries, sectors, and academic qualifications.
3. Moreover, organizations must do a much better job of strengthening teams from within, primarily by investing in cybersecurity training and up-skilling initiatives.
4. They should improve their ways of sharing institutional knowledge and distributing it across an entire organization.

Organizations and government agencies that can adapt their training and professional development initiatives to address and solve these challenges would be able to solve the cybersecurity workforce shortage.