Lack of Cyber Security Professionals Essays

Essay 1

The flourishing new field of cybersecurity has gained popularity due to a rapidly increasing need to fill the gaps that exist in the present day workforce (NeSmith, 2018). Presently, cyber threats are the leading challenges facing the world and are predicted to double in the next two decades (Caulkins, Badillo-Urquiola, Bockelman & Leis, 2016). Besides, the unfilled positions of cybersecurity jobs are also expected to rise to 3.5 million by the year 2021 across the globe (Morgan, 2016). As of 2017, the cybersecurity workforce within the United States consisted of nearly 715 000 individuals and 314,000 unfilled positions. (Burrell, 2018) The problem is that some IT leaders do not have successful strategies to deal with the lack of qualified cybersecurity personnel.

The lack of qualified cybersecurity experts in the dynamic business world has become a significant industry crisis; putting many organizations at a higher risk of encountering data breaches that may end up taking years to develop a reliable solution (Bedding & de Jongh, 2017). According to a 2017 study by Global Information Security Workforce, most companies lack proper protection of their data primarily because qualified cybersecurity engineers are difficult to find and tend to demand top salary figures (Morgan, 2017). As such, the cybercriminals are taking advantage of the lack of qualified or understaffed organizations and cybersecurity officials with little or no practical efforts to respond, prevent, and detect attacks (NeSmith, 2018). Thus, the gap between the cybersecurity expert's demand and supply continues to increase and hence the utter need of a more detailed cybersecurity workforce with the knowledge to help find a lasting solution to the growing risks of cyber-crimes (CyberSeek.org, 2017). However, the implementation of cybersecurity support to make the ratio between the supply and demand of the cybersecurity workers at 2:3 has resulted in a decrease in successful cyber attacks within organizations as investments managers as well as cyber security schools have focused on implementing efficient and effective strategies to train cybersecurity professionals and adequately enhance their competence (CyberSeek.org, 2017).

References

Bedding, K., & de Jongh, M. (2017). Federal Workforce: Attracting and Retaining Talent in the Field of Cybersecurity.

Burrell, D. N., (2018). An Exploration of the Cybersecurity Workforce Shortage. International Journal of Hyperconnectivity and the Internet of Things (IJHIoT), 2(1), 29-41.

Caulkins, B. D., Badillo-Urquiola, K., Bockelman, P., & Leis, R. (2016, October). Cyber workforce development using a behavioral cybersecurity paradigm. In 2016 International Conference on Cyber Conflict (CyCon US) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.

CyberSeek.org, (2017). "Cyber Security Supply/Demand Heat Map" Retrieved from https://www.cyberseek.org/heatmap.html

Morgan, S., (2016). One million cyber security job openings in 2016. Forbes, January 2.

Morgan, S., (2017). "Cybercrime Report, 2017" Retrieved from https://ncvc.dspacedirect.org/handle/20.500.11990/846.

NeSmith, B., (2018). "The Cyber security Talent Gap Is an Industry Crisis" Forbes, August, 9 Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/08/09/the-cybersecurity-talent-gap-is-an-industry-crisis/#6464d96ca6b3

Essay 2

In the modern digital world, the relatively new field of cybersecurity has significantly become popular with a rapidly increasing need to fill the gaps that exist in the current workforce. Ideally, cyber threats are the leading challenges facing the world today and are predicted to grow in the next two decades. The unfilled positions of cybersecurity jobs are also expected to rise to 3.5 million by 2021 across the globe (Morgan, 2017). The entire cybersecurity workforce within the United States comprises of nearly 715, 000 individuals, and the currently unfilled positions are about 314, 000 (Morgan, 2017). However, there are no adequate or successful strategies that IT leaders and manager are implementing to deal with the lack of qualified cybersecurity professionals effectively. The primary problem which is also the central focus of this research proposal is that "No successful strategies are being implemented to deal with the lack of qualified personnel."

However, the lack of qualified cybersecurity in the modern business world has become a significant industry crisis, putting many organizations at a high risk of encountering data breach that may end up taking years to get a reliable solution. A recent report from a study by Global Information Security Workforce reveals that most companies are in a tight spot primarily because qualified cybersecurity engineers are rare to find and once they are available they tend to command for top salary figures (Morgan, 2016). As such, the cybercriminals are today taking advantage of the lack of qualified or understaffed organizations with cybersecurity officials that have little or no practical efforts to respond, prevent and detect attacks. The gap between the cybersecurity demand and supply continues to increase and thus the utter need of more cybersecurity workforce with detailed knowledge to help combat the burgeoning menace of cybercrimes (CyberSeek.org, 2017). The ratio between the supply and demand of the cybersecurity workers is currently at 2.3 making it one of the most substantial challenges facing the business world prompting the investments managers as well as cybersecurity schools to implement efficient and effective strategies to train the cybersecurity professionals and adequately enhance their competence (CyberSeek.org, 2017). Cybersecurity career can thus be considered as the most significant profession worth to pursue due to its increased demand in today's job market.

References

CyberSeek.org (2017). "CyberSecurity Supply/Demand Heat Map" Retrieved from https://www.cyberseek.org/heatmap.html

Morgan, S. (2016). One million cybersecurity job openings in 2016. Forbes, January, 2.

Morgan, S. (2017). "Cybercrime Report, 2017" Retrieved from https://ncvc.dspacedirect.org/handle/20.500.11990/846.