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Are we facing a skills gap John Colley, CISSP, MD EMEA, (ISC)2 ,
discusses the results of a study which suggest a forthcoming shortage of skills within the IT security industry.
The information security profession has weathered the recession well. This conclusion was offered by Frost & Sullivan after completing the 2011 (ISC)2
Global
Information Security Workforce Study, which found professionals are enjoying job stability, increased salaries and growing demand for their services. Further, companies are emerging from the recession ready to hire additional resources and increase spending on training and systems. This good news, however, is countered by warnings of a skills gap. The triple impact of cloud computing, the exponential growth in mobile computing, along with the business use of social networking is opening up a serious disconnect between changes in organisational behaviour and the requirements to secure them. Ironically, these trends, many of them driven by the downturn, have the security profession facing one of
the most challenging periods in its history. The fifth report since the (ISC)2
launched this
research programme in 2004, the study surveyed 10,413 respondents from 120 countries, confirming that our audience is growing both at the most senior management and user level. The analysts estimate the number of information security professionals worldwide to be at 2.28 million today, and they expect an increase to 4.24 million professionals by 2015, a compound annual growth rate of 13.2 percent, up from 10 percent the last time the study was conducted in 2008 (illustrated by table 1).
Beyond the sheer numbers, the roles of
professionals are changing significantly: Over 20 percent reported being involved in software development, for example. Professionals are also spending significant time providing advice on security to customers. Neither of these concerns surfaced in 2008. Other evolving areas of responsibility come from continued change to the regulatory landscape and the monumental task of controlling data in increasingly open and mobile IT environments. Application
Table 1 - 2010-2015 Forecast for Information Security Professionals 2010 2011 2012 796,576 2013 2014 2015
Americas 920,845 1,058,972 1,214,641 1,393,193 1,570,128 1,785,236 EMEA 617,271 703,689 APAC 748,348 830,666 Total
Figure 1 - Important Requirements Needed to Secure the Organisation
Management support of security policies Users following security policy Qualified security staff
Training of staff on security policy Secure software development
Having access to executive management such as the CEO Software solutions Hardware solutions
91% 90% 89% 84% 74% 68% 62% 56%
897,741 1,014,448 1,148,355 924,531 1,038,248 1,168,029 1,310,529 2,286,464 2,593,327 2,935,748 3,329,183 3,752,605 4,244,120
2010-2015 CAGR 14.2% 13.2% 11.9% 13.2%
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