Cybersecurity is the need of the hour for every business, and with a growing number of incidents happening each year, companies need to focus on it. Businesses that have been hit by data breaches and other cyber issues have lost data and finances.
While there is a growing demand for cybersecurity professionals, the supply could be much better. A survey by a nonprofit member organization for cybersecurity professionals shows that there are four million professionals. However, there is still a need for different professionals to meet the growing demand. Let’s discover more about what can change in the cybersecurity industry.
The Impact of The Great Resignation:
The great resignation is no big secret for anyone. After the pandemic, many companies decided to call back their workforce. While the WFH (work-from-home) model offered various benefits to employees and employers, some companies chose to go against it.
Similarly, the professionals in the cybersecurity arena are demanding a workplace that is suitable according to the lifestyle they want. It is essential as it is also the leading cause of organizations’ difficulty finding professionals. In addition, the ISC2 survey noted that organizations stated that they couldn’t find qualified talent. Other than that, the common reasons were lack of competitive pay, attrition, and high turnover.
Growing Demand for Skilled Individuals in the Cybersecurity Field:
The demand for cyber security professionals is rising, growing twice as quickly as the workforce. According to the job outlook of the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics), it will be around 32% for 2022-32. This growth is much faster than average and will continue to grow in the long run.
The demand for cybersecurity professionals is relatively high in the U.S. As of now, there is a need for the position of cybersecurity engineers in various U.S. organizations. The role of cybersecurity engineers entails knowledge of several security domains, such as:
- Vulnerability management
- Technical skills
- Security operations
- Security engineering
- Security compliance
- Application security
The advanced technical skill that most businesses are looking for is experience with log query languages, including Linux and Windows. Furthermore, they also want engineers to understand and command programming languages such as Python. Fundamental project management skills are also something that organizations are looking for.
Growth of Workforce in Eastern Countries:
The workforce growth rate has been an issue not just in the U.S. but in other countries as well. For instance, Germany’s workforce growth rate flattened after witnessing a significant rise in 2021. But the case is quite the opposite with countries in the Eastern part, such as Japan.
Data shows these countries have outpaced the U.S. regarding cybersecurity workforce growth. The North American countries had a workforce growth rate of 6.2%. At the same time, the countries in Asia and the Pacific region could add 15.6% more collectively.
Growing Cyber Threats That Can Impact Organizations:
As businesses are now focusing on a customer-centric approach, they need to protect themselves from possible data security issues. Only then will customers be able to trust and decide to do business with them. Therefore, firms need to know about the top cyber security threats. So, here are some of the growing cyber threats that can impact organizations:
- Third-Party Exposure: If data protection is outsourced to a third party, hackers or cybercriminals can also look to attack it.
- Social Engineering: It takes advantage of human errors rather than technical vulnerabilities to access data or internal systems.
- Sim Swap: The growing usage of mobile phones also makes them a hotspot for cyber criminals. Cybercriminals may look to carry out a sim swap, an account takeover scam that targets a weakness in some form.
- Ransomware: An old trick that cybercriminals use, but still quite common. Organizations’ data is encrypted, and cybercriminals demand ransomware for it.
- Data Management: Poor data management is also a threat as it paves the path for cybercriminals to access sensitive data.
These are just some of the cyber threats that organizations have to face. Many businesses have become victim of it, causing a loss of data and customer base. Therefore, organizations must take strict actions and protect themselves against these issues.
As the world is rapidly moving towards digitization, it has become a necessity for organizations to focus on cyber security. Cybercriminals and hackers come up with new ways to break through security systems daily. This could jeopardize businesses, employees, customers, and other relevant stakeholders. Therefore, a business needs to have the right individuals by their side to enforce tight cybersecurity measures. As a result, they can mitigate the risks of growing cybersecurity attacks.