Building the cyber security workforce of today

Cyber security staffing shortages are being driven by issues such as burnout, a lack of interest, and qualifications (or lack of), leading to some alarming statistics for the industry.

According to the International Information System Security Certification Consortium (ISC2), the cybersecurity workforce gap increased from 2.7 million in 2021 to 3.4 million in 2022.

A separate UK government study reported there were 160,035 cyber security job postings in the last year – an increase of 30% on the previous year, and 37% of these vacancies were reported as “hard-to-fill”.

But even role filled doesn’t mean it’s being performed correctly.

The same report suggested half of all UK businesses have a cyber security skills gap which indicates some employees may be adding little value to the company.

According to Paul Watts, distinguished analyst at Information Security Forum, and retired CISO, students are being taught the technicalities around cyber security but failing to obtain that all-important experience.