Cyber skills shortage threatens corporate security

As we know, the threat of cyberattacks is also increasing with increasing digitalization. IT security experts are therefore particularly in demand: according to the Risk & Cybersecurity Study 2022 by IT consultancy Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), companies see the biggest challenge in the area of cybersecurity not in the budget, but in the shortage of cyber specialists. According to the study, half (49%) of companies in the EU and the UK plan to hire specialists with cybersecurity skills in the future. In North America, as many as two thirds (65%) intend to look for talent in the future. For the study, 607 companies from Europe and North America with an annual turnover of at least $ 1 billion were surveyed. The interviews were conducted with managers who are responsible for cybersecurity in their company. These included Chief Risk Officers (CROs) and Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) from the financial sector, the utilities, media and information services industry and the mechanical and plant engineering sector.

Cyber skills shortage among top hurdles for enterprise IT security

Chief risk officers (CROs) and chief information security officers (CISOs) report in the survey that they have already had difficulty attracting (44 percent) and retaining (42 percent) talent with cyber risk and security skills in the past year.

The second biggest hurdle cited by the CROs and CISOs was the requirements of the work environment, such as the home office and the associated risks. For example, employees had to be given numerous remote accesses to their employer's systems and databases at short notice due to the pandemic and the resulting move to the home office. This opens up new points of attack for cyber criminals. Assessing the various security risks and quantifying their costs is the third biggest challenge for the respondents.

Cybersecurity is not a budget issue

Any budget restrictions only follow in tenth place in the ranking. The fact that the latter are affecting fewer and fewer companies is shown by the great willingness to invest: 52% of European and 62% of North American companies stated that they had increased their budgets for IT security since last year. "Keeping up with the most advanced tactics of cyber criminals is less a question of financial resources. Rather, the challenge lies in finding and retaining the right professionals with the required expertise," says Santha Subramoni, Global Head of Cybersecurity Services at Tata Consultancy Services.

How companies ensure they have a recruiting edge

The cyber skills shortage cannot be solved by one measure alone. "However, companies can help close the skills gap by using external service providers for hard-to-staff tasks such as 24/7 network monitoring and at the same time promoting talent internally," says the TCS security expert. The study also shows that the more frequently the board deals with the topic of cybersecurity, the more successful the company is in finding and retaining the relevant experts. Another finding: the study identifies a correlation between employee retention and the way in which a company stores its information. Companies that rely on cloud solutions have a slight advantage in recruiting cyber talent over companies that prefer on-premise solutions or traditional data centers to the cloud. In fact, cloud platforms give organizations a five-point advantage in recruiting and retaining cyber experts. "Given the increasing complexity of cyber security, the talent gap is also widening," adds Rainer Zahradnik, Country Manager TCS Switzerland. "Sustained attention from managers, financial support and process changes within the company will be crucial to recruiting and retaining top talent." Source and further information: www.tcs.com/risk-cybersecurity

This article originally appeared on m-q.ch - https://www.m-q.ch/de/cyber-fachkraeftemangel-bedroht-sicherheit-von-unternehmen/