Cybersecurity awareness is steadily growing, with organisations and individuals alike adapting best practices. That being said, the alarm bells are still ringing when it comes to the cybersecurity skills gap, especially as organisations increasingly need more employees to support the growing need for a strong security posture. Unfortunately, this skills shortage isn’t going anywhere anytime soon however, it can be improved – gradually. For that, the cyber industry must recruit new talent.
The virtual Cybersecurity Skills Festival is aiming to do exactly that – close the cybersecurity skills gap. The Cybersecurity Skills Festival will be hosted by Security Awareness Special Interest Group (SASIG) and is free for anyone to join. The first of these was held last May, during which 350+ participants joined in on the discussion surrounding the cybersecurity skills shortage, how to find jobs and recruit team members. Supported by both the public and private sectors, government, academia, education initiatives and universities across the country, this event helped individuals make the right connections and fill hundreds of potential job roles, already pushing for the change the cybersecurity industry needs to discover more talent.
Already 30+ companies from all sectors and of various sizes will be participating this year, eager to find new talent. This event is the perfect opportunity for any organisation recruiting for new positions – and its 100% free! Equally, anyone looking to join the industry is welcome to join, make connections and learn more about what it’s like to work in cyber.
The huge demand in all parts of the industry for skilled cybersecurity practitioners is rapidly outstripping supply. The skills shortage ranges from the CISO, to deeply technical architects and cloud specialists, including entry level security administrators, SOC specialists and compliance staff. But softer skills are also under-resourced – skills such as communications, training, project management, team management etc. What’s more is, the industry is lacking workers from more diverse pools; women are still under represented, as are ethnic minorities and neurodiverse individuals – meaning that the industry is lacking enormous amounts of talent.
Smaller and midsize businesses and enterprises are bearing the brunt of the skills gap. These are increasingly exploited by cyber criminals as backdoors to their large enterprise customers and partners. They particularly suffer as larger organisations often outbid them to acquire talent. To make matters worse, trained individuals often use these businesses to gain knowledge and experience before moving on to higher-paid positions at larger companies. This further destabilises the market and demoralises organisations from investing in new recruits.
The cybersecurity skills gap continues to cause issues for many organisations, limiting the pool of ready-made, off-the-shelf trained candidates. We should all be a part of closing this gap and developing the next generation of cybersecurity talent.
To be a part of the Cybersecurity Skills Festival you can register here or contact SASIG for more information.
