A big problem worldwide: four million cybersecurity employees are missing

A big problem worldwide: four million cybersecurity employees are missing

New York, 12.11. 2019

The cybersecurity industry in the US and in ten other major economies in the world currently employs 2.8 million professionals. However, the sector has a much higher demand but can not cover it due to the lack of suitable manpower. Currently 4 million security experts are still missing. The ISC comes to this conclusion in a recent study (Cybersecurity Workforce Study 2019 – download here:

https://www.isc2.org/-/media/ISC2/Research/2019-Cybersecurity-Workforce-Study/ISC2-Cybersecurity-Workforce-Study-2019.ashx?la=en&hash=D087F6468B4991E0BEFFC017BC1ADF59CD5A2EF7

The countries studied are the US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Australia, Singapore, Brazil, Mexico, Japan and South Korea. According to the study, 804,700 cybersecurity experts currently fail US organizations. A 62% increase would be needed to offset the current shortage of 498,480 workers. The gap in the Asia-Pacific region is 2.6 million and in Europe 291,000. This shortage makes it harder for companies to effectively counter cyber threats.

The study does not cover China and India because „limited information about the size of the corporate sector is available in these markets“.

In previous years, the main objective of (ISC) ² labor force studies was to gauge the labor shortage. This time, however, the organization set about calculating the size of the workforce in addition to the skills gap. This calculation gives companies worldwide a better understanding of what is needed in the cybersecurity era.

The $ 4 million shortage of cybersecurity represents an increase of around one-third compared with nearly 3 million in 2018. The study attributes the increase primarily to higher recruitment demand.

It’s understandable that cyber security teams need to be stepped up urgently, as cyber attacks remain a big problem for businesses of all types and sizes. Cyber ​​risks are a key concern for CEOs around the world. Understandable, with 65% of companies complaining about the lack of cybersecurity personnel. In addition, with 36%, this problem is clearly ranked by the lack of resources for its work (27%) and insufficient budget (24%).

Respondents covered crucial cybersecurity features such as CISO, IT Director, Security Analyst, Security Administrator, and Compliance Officer. A total of 3,237 people were interviewed who were responsible for security / cybersecurity, more than twice as many as in the previous study (1,452).