Too Many Threats and Too Few Cyber Security Professionals

5 min readSep 11, 2018

Do you Agree ?

Among the most damaging forms of cybercrime, economic costs of ransomware attacks grew from around $325 million in the year 2015 to exceed $5 billion in 2017. That represents a whopping 15-time increase in the space of just 2 years. This year has been no different with the breaching of 340 million records of the data aggregation firm Exactis along with the compromising of the MyFitnessPal smartphone app in February.

The overall cost of damages due to cyber-attacks is expected to touch $6 trillion (or £4.5 trillion ) by the year 2021.

With the growing numbers of Internet users and connected devices, cyber-attacks and online threats are expected to cause more business and data losses.

According to a market research performed by Cybersecurity Ventures, the corporate spending on cybersecurity products and services is expected to exceed $1 trillion by the year 2021. IT security and data protection are now among the major concerns for any and every Business, corporates. Due to this perceived cyber threat the spending on information security is expected to touch $93 billion by the end of 2018 by the corporates..

The Industry Shortage of Cyber-Security Professionals

With the gradual growth of corporate investments into cybersecurity products and services, there is also a growing industry demand for trained certified cybersecurity who can provide effective cyber-security measures for business and corporate data.

According to industry estimates, the global demand for cybersecurity professionals is expected to grow to over 6 million by the year 2019. A great news for job-seekers, right?

However, all is not well as the industry is facing a major shortage of qualified cyber-security professionals to curb the growing threat of cybercrime. By current industry estimates, the industry is projected to have a shortage of 25% or 1.5 million jobs that are unfilled.

Demand for Cyber-Security Professionals in the U.K.

The scene is no different in the U.K!

With the growing number of data breaches and their impact on U.K-based companies, no business enterprise (large or small) is safe from cyber-attacks.

A serious data breach can cost any business a crippling cost of upto $3.1 million or more. Additionally, U.K.-based companies also have to pay the legal costs to comply with the government-approved General Data Protection Regulation (or GDPR).

Thanks to the overall shortage of skilled professionals, the industry demand for cyber-security professionals is so high that the current unemployment rate is 0%.

With over 95% of organisations now moving to cloud-based computing and around 85% of applications running on cloud platforms like AWS , Azure etc., the demand for Cloud and Embedded Security Specialists is expected to grow by 12% in 2018 alone. The increasing adoption of Artificial Intelligence (or AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and robotics is further likely to expand industry need for cyber-security professionals, as a major hack in manufacturing or transportation could lead to business losses of millions in productivity or product faults.

The U.K.-based recruitment company, Hays reports that cyber-security professionals received an average pay rise of over 10% in the IT industry for the year 2017. With a pay increase of around 8.4% for cyber-security engineers, this outclassed the national average pay increase in the U.K. of just 1.8% and an average pay rise of 2.3% for non-cyber security professionals.

That’s lucrative!

Why Does the Global Industry Need More Cyber-security Professionals?

With cyber-criminals becoming more innovative and organized, the global industry requires more cyber-security experts/specialists who can defend computer systems against varied cyber-attacks. While the baby boomer generation is expected to retire over the next decade, the industry is looking towards the younger millennial generation to learn cyber security skills and fill in the growing number of unfilled positions.

However, the current industry statistics are far from positive. A Global Information Security Workforce Study survey revealed that the average age of cyber professionals is high at 42 and only 7% of cybersecurity professionals are under the age of 29 years.

The current shortage of cybersecurity professionals can be attributed to the following 3 influencing factors:

· Lack of awareness and planning for a career in information security among students

· Misconceptions around the nature of information security jobs

· Advanced educational and training requirements with the industry looking for certified professionals in computer security degrees.

Career Opportunities for Certified Cyber Security Professionals

Information security specialists can aspire for a rewarding career in the field of cyber-security in the U.K. and across the globe. Along with high salaries, professionals in the cyber security domain have the opportunity to develop both technical and managerial skills.

While cyber-security is a very broad career field, professionals can opt for various job roles including that of a Security Engineer or a Security Analyst and climb their way up to the role of a Chief Security Officer (or CSO). Other security-related jobs include:

· Ethical hacking

· Risk analysis

· Information security management that includes skills for understanding process management, business needs, and customer relations.

For a successful career in information or cyber security, aspiring graduates and professionals must possess a complete knowledge of how IT systems and applications perform, along with a complete understanding of modern security threats and vulnerabilities posed by cyber-attacks.

The Way Ahead

The sophisticated nature of the threats posed by cyber-attacks and security lapses is transforming the way organisations are managing their information systems. As a result, the way forward for cyber-security is security professionals who can apply their skills and experience across business domains and not just into the maintenance of application firewalls and cyber risk mitigation.

USKILL ACADEMY was founded to offer the best cyber security training. Our instructor led training programme will offer a vibrant learning environment where students can learn about cybersecurity principles, attacks, incidents, security architecture, risk management, and emerging IT and IS technologies. We emphasise on teaching our students based on real-world threats and how to manage and prevent them. We have experience team of experts with widespread specialisation in security testing. Our aim is to create awareness in information security by offering excellent learning platform by offering certification programs, which are recognised worldwide and have received endorsements from various government agencies.