Page 36 - Cyber Defense eMagazine April 2021 Edition

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ooking for a cybersecurity professional or two (or 100) for your
Lorganization? Join the club as companies worldwide face a shortage of IT security
professionals that were already in scant supply before the pandemic and are now critically so.
According to a survey by tech recruiter Harvey Nash and KPMG, more than one-third (35%) of
companies are searching for cybersecurity professionals as their top priority. Further, 2020 was the
first year in more than 10 that IT security skills topped the list of technology skills shortages, worldwide.

Since cybersecurity threats persist in a time when cybersecurity professionals are in such high
demand, it’s clear that companies are going to have to find creative ways to meet the
need to protect themselves, their employees and their customers. Namely, they’re
going to have to look outside traditional criteria and rely more heavily on technology.
Digitization + Increased Attacks = Heightened Security Needs

Organizations worldwide are increasingly relying on digital initiatives: A McKinsey Global Survey of
executives revealed that the pandemic brought about years of change in how professionals con-
duct business, regardless of sector. Further, respondents have accelerated digitization of their internal
operations by three to four years. Thirty-seven percent of respondents also increased data security spending.

And it’s no wonder when you consider damage done, for example, by the 2020 SolarWinds
attack. Texas-based IT company SolarWinds provides network management systems to more
than 300,000 clients; about 18,000 of whom downloaded updates affected by the supply chain at-
tack embedded in SolarWinds’s Orion Product. This enabled sophisticated hackers to obtain
undetected access to a subset of affected enterprises for a minimum of nine months. The
motivation behind the breach is unclear – as is the amount of damage done.

What is crystal clear, however, is the necessity for organizations to heighten their security
measures. Yet with the need for cybersecurity on the rise, four million qualified employees are
needed to adequately defend organizations. With a 0% unemployment rate in cybersecurity,
opportunities abound for professionals with these skills. But there simply aren’t enough of them.
According to Wesley Simpson, chief operating officer of (ISC)2, a nonprofit organization that
trains cyber professionals, “Unfortunately, the pipeline of security talent isn’t where it needs
to be to help curb the cybercrime epidemic. Until we can rectify the quality of education and
training that our new cyber experts receive, we will continue to be outpaced by the Black Hats.”

From White Collar to New Collar
It’s time to get crafty and think beyond looking for white collar cybersecurity professionals only.
There’s an innovative “new collar” approach underway that involves tapping cybersecurity
professionals that might not have a traditional college degree but do have the requisite
technical skills and aptitudes to fulfill the cybersecurity needs of many organizations.The new-collar
approach focuses on skills that could have been honed through hands-on experience and
professional certifications. For example, ex-military personnel are often great candidates to
enter the cybersecurity professional workforce. Military veterans generally have soft skills like
proactivity, analytical thinking and problem solving, and diligence to ensure work will continue
unimpeded. All of which attribute nicely to defending a company’s digital infrastructure.
Consider the benefits of seeking, hiring and training candidates who have experience identifying and
alleviating the impact of cyberattacks, or have specialized cloud security skills, for instance.

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