In the wake of the federal government's announcement of new efforts to bolster our national cybersecurity comes a batch of survey results from a leading IT security training and certification firm that suggests that security professionals can look forward to a future with new jobs coming onto the market and fewer expected budget cuts.
(ISC)2's survey of 2,800 IT professionals also found hiring managers are struggling to fill positions as candidate salary expectations and skill levels don't meet current demand. A total of 44 percent responding said they were looking to hire additional information security staff this year. What are they looking for? Here's the list, in order of demand:
- Operations security
- Information risk management
- Access control systems and methodology
- Applications and systems development security
- Security management practices
More than 80 percent of hiring managers said they were having a tough time finding the right people because they lack the desired skills, are in the wrong location, or have salary demands that are too high in this troubled economy, especially among candidates in the financial services sector.
They also report reduced information security budgets, which isn't good, but 62 percent said they don't expect more budget cuts this year. The bottom line: security continues to be one of the hotter arenas in IT right now.
--Don Willmott