Page 126 - Cyber Defense eMagazine April 2023

Root of the Cause: Why Is There a Cybersecurity Skills Gap With Such High Demand?

Although data shows that the number of open cybersecurity positions dropped from 3.12 million to 2.72
million in October 2021, the cybersecurity talent gap actually grew during that period. What makes this
even odder is that IT cybersecurity professionals reported overall higher job satisfaction and happiness
levels from working in the field.

Data from one study shows that 2021 was the best year for cybersecurity workers, and employees in the
field showed a job satisfaction rate of 77% that year, which was the highest job satisfaction rate in the
history of the survey.

So, it stands to reason that one of the gaps in this particular IT sub-sector might have to do with questions
surrounding on-site, hybrid, or remote work options. Only 15% of cybersecurity professionals expressed
interest in returning to an office environment full-time, which has led to an above-average wave of
resignations within this industry.

It's also important to note that changes to the job itself had a hand in this resignation wave. In the wake
of the global pandemic, it wasn’t just cybersecurity pros going remote–everyone did. The move to remote
work resulted in a nightmare for industry professionals plagued with more headaches and more security
risks that made it even more challenging for experts in the field to do their job.

North America is also facing a unique IT “size gap” due to the insurmountable medium-sized tech
businesses experiencing intense competition from international mega-firms regarding things like market
share and profitability. Naturally, the same competition takes place on a national scale when recruiting
premier talent.

Automation to Ease the Burden on Cybersecurity Pros

The idea behind automation and the technology skills gap is to reduce the demand for talent by reducing
the reliance on people. This can be especially effective in the security world, where things like patching,
disaster recovery, and threat detection can all be automated and reduce the need for specialized talent.

Automation can indeed reduce the need for specialized cybersecurity talent, but IT execs need to be
careful not to fall into the trap of relying solely on it. Some highly-skilled talent will still be needed to run
and monitor these systems. So, while automation does relieve some of the pressure caused by the labor
shortage in the cybersecurity sector, it doesn’t solve it completely.

Budgets and expenses also limit the deployment of automation cybersecurity platforms throughout the
industry. While this technology is becoming more and more established by the day, it’s still relatively new.
IT execs will need to carefully examine AI/automation platforms to see what they can afford and what
services will be most impactful to their business.

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