A skilled workforce is the fundamental block of every organization. As the technology keeps advancing with time, companies these days need to protect themselves against cyber invaders. A strong security envelope is required for seeking immunity against unwanted intruders. Now the implementation of security strategy too requires a skilled and highly qualified workforce. Time and again, we’ve come across news concerning cyber security attacks causing a massive damage. IT managers of are having a hard time trying to guard internal networks with a small team. To put it differently, lack of cyber security expertise is leaving the organizations vulnerable to cyber attacks.
A majority of tech-savvy individuals are seeking career opportunities in either big/start-up companies or are busy setting up their own ventures. As a result, only a few individuals are actually looking forward to pursuing careers in cyber security. Just to fill the lack of position in this field, cyber security recruitments are on rage these days. Moreover, the companies are even ready to pay huge paychecks for the job. What more could one wish for?
Cyber Security Expertise Can Land You a High Paid Job
Recently, Intel Security collaborated with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, to release a report. It was termed as “Hacking the Skills Shortage.” It is based on the research led by Vanson Bourne, a tech market research company. They conducted an interview with IT managers involved in various organization’s cyber security. These decision-makers represented Israel, Mexico, United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, and Australia.
It comes out that careers in cyber security can offer big, fat paychecks. But it’s also important to realize that it’s quite tough for beginners to enter the complex business of cyber security. 82 percent of decision-makers reported that their organization lacks in cyber security skills. One in every three believes that lack of individuals in cyber security team makes them a prime target for hackers. Furthermore, one in every four noted that such situation has caused reputational damage along with the loss of proprietary data.
Cyber security is an issue spanning industries and businesses around the world. As per the recent surveys, by 2019, there will be 1-2M vacant jobs in the cyber security workforce globally. In the United States alone, almost 209,000 jobs for cyber security experts remained vacant in 2015. Employers these days are demanding higher technical skills rather than soft ones such as collaboration. Similarly, businesses are finding it difficult to recruit talents for intrusion detection, attack mitigation, and secure software.
An Initiative To Solve The Problem
Most of the IT managers report that organizations and governments are responsible for the shortage. They are not providing enough resources to address this kind of skills shortage. More than 76 percent of survey respondents believe the government bodies are not investing enough in cyber security skills. Unfortunately, this leads to lack of cyber security expertise around the world. Also, it ends up placing a majority of businesses at a risk of expecting invaders. In others words, it causes businesses to fall a prey to cyber-espionage or hackers.
Kaspersky Lab has come up with a brilliant initiative. It has launched an international competition named Talent Lab. Young professionals and university students (18-30) can apply. This competition aims at offering a solution to challenges in cyber security. It will address the creative and technical talents of the competitors. Talent Lab will offer $10,000 grant for winner’s further education. Online submissions from all the countries will remain open until November 15, 2016. You can check the company’s website for more details.
In fact, you can register here at academy.kaspersky.com/
Are you one of those individuals having cyber security expertise? Why don’t you go for this once in a lifetime opportunity?