The growing cybersecurity skills gap is adding to the challenges businesses already face; according to Fortinet’s 2022 Cybersecurity Skills Gap report approximately 80 percent of organisations have had at least one cybersecurity breach due to the lack of cybersecurity skills or awareness. Further, the research found that 64 percent of businesses have either lost revenue or paid fines due to the breaches, and 67 percent of respondents saw that the shortage of qualified cybersecurity candidates increases the risk of an attack. Businesses should see this wake-up call and work to close the cybersecurity skills gap, but what actions can they take?
Focus on recruiting the right talent
The global cybersecurity workforce has continued to grow, yet the number of unfilled cybersecurity jobs has reached approximately 3.4 million in 2022. By 2025, it is predicted that there will be 3.5 million open roles in this industry, according to Cybersecurity Ventures. It is essential for organisations to find and retain the right talent to ensure that the cybersecurity skills gap closes and remains that way.
The lack of diversity in the industry must also be addressed by businesses. Globally, women held a quarter (25 percent) of cybersecurity roles in 2022. Positively, the number of women in cybersecurity roles globally is forecasted to increase to 30 percent by 2025, and 35 percent by 2031, according to the Women in Cybersecurity 2022 Report. Nevertheless, more must be done to ensure that women are applying to these roles.
A good starting point is to lower the high barriers to entry, where those applying for these roles are expected to have decades of experience to even be initially considered for a role. This is one of the reasons why the cybersecurity skills gap continues to grow, and positions are not being filled. Organisations should be open-minded and flexible in their recruitment processes. They should be looking to hire talent who are willing to learn new skills or build upon the skills which they already have if they are serious about creating the teams they need to secure their organisation.
Future-proof your talent through education and training
Given that there is a lack of cybersecurity talent in the industry already, external hiring will only go so far. With the TD SYNNEX Technology Ecosystem Benchmark Report finding that half of partners see cybersecurity as one of their most important solution areas and aim to expand their expertise in this area, addressing this skills gap is going to be key to future business success and growth. A way for organisations to build up the skills of their in-house talent is through education, training and certifications which are supported by their partners in the channel, whether they are vendors, systems orchestrators, or accredited training organisations. There are a number of these courses available, for example TD SYNNEX offers the ‘Cyber-Security Fundamentals’ course and a ‘Cyber-Security Advanced’ course, which allow partners to receive industry recognised badges upon completion.
For those wanting a foundational understanding of the cybersecurity landscape, they can enrol on ‘The Cyber-Security Fundamentals’ course which aims to empower employees to have an initial conversation about cybersecurity, detect current and potential needs and requirements of end customers and be able to forward this information to specialists that can help fulfil these needs. Alternatively, for those with more experience, the ‘Cyber-Security Advanced’ course allows them to deepen their knowledge of the nine main areas of cybersecurity including identity and access management, cloud security, security intelligence and data security amongst other areas.
Courses such as these can help to close the cybersecurity gap through allowing non-specialised cybersecurity partners to update their knowledge of the fast-evolving cybersecurity landscape and helping them to upskill their workforce.
Organisations must recognise that hiring alone cannot close the cybersecurity gap, the well of talent is running empty and the cybersecurity sector at large needs to broaden its talent pool if it is going to succeed. Much of the support and training that partners need to upskill their employees and enable them to start helping end user organisations with their cybersecurity is readily available, and the channel must now come together to begin making best use of this in a joined up manner so we can secure the digital future.
Article submitted by Diana Gayri, Manager, ECC Security and Networking at TD SYNNEX
