RiskXchange looks at the cybersecurity skills shortage and how to address the problem.
A report by Cybersecurity Ventures has highlighted that 3.5 million cybersecurity jobs will be available but unfilled by 2021. Experts warn that organisations will fail to fill these positions because the industry lacks cybersecurity skills, so they must consider alternative ways to meet demand.
More and more businesses today are moving their workloads to the cloud, but at the same time, it remains less than 10 per cent of overall IT spending. Organisations are becoming limited by the lack of security knowledge or expertise on the cloud and a skills shortage is becoming very apparent.
According to Forbes, the problem cannot be solved by simply training and hiring people to do more of the same work. Enterprises must instead rethink how they allocate resources for a new age of cybersecurity on the cloud. Taking advantage of cybersecurity firms who are specially trained in the latest ways to tackle sophisticated hacking methods is key.
RiskXchange looks at how to reduce the cybersecurity skills shortage
There are many areas to concentrate on when looking at ways to improve cybersecurity skills in line with the latest developments, especially when it comes to the cloud. Leveraging security as code, automated reasoning, machine learning and other exponential technologies are all needed to achieve optimum security at scale. Finding the right people to perform new ways of securing resources as they deploy more workloads on the cloud is also key to the success of any organisation today.
Let’s take a closer look:
Leverage exponential security technologies
Four exponential technologies can help meet the cybersecurity scale challenge – security as code, automated remediation, machine learning and automated reasoning.
1) Security as code: You can define infrastructure as code that includes computing, storage, database and networking with most cloud providers. They also include managed security services, such as identity and access management, firewalls, encryption key management and detection, which can be defined as code as well. By codifying the provisioning of these security services, organisations can automatically evaluate security controls for any application at any stage and environment.
The focus should be on the following:
• Making sure changes to the configuration are peer-reviewed and source-controlled.
• Automating the software delivery process, including provisioning security resources and running security tests.
• Carefully review environment configurations to optimise security.
• As part of the software delivery process, run static and dynamic analysis tools and feed issues found back into the sprint.
2) Automated remediation: A kind of subset of “security as code” in which systems automatically respond to events by running code that fixes detected security vulnerabilities without the need for human intervention.
3) Automated reasoning: Cloud providers are leveraging the use of automated reasoning technology, the application of mathematical logic, to mitigate infrastructure risks. By using mathematical calculations to determine misconfigurations or potentially exposing vulnerable data against an infrastructure, organisations can run millions of fully automated checks without launching infrastructure resources.
4) Machine learning: By utilising machine learning models using cloud-based services, organisations can automatically detect and respond to security and compliance vulnerabilities.
Find and develop expertise
It has become clear that due to the lack of skilled workers on the market today, organisations cannot simply access the existing pool of cybersecurity talent to meet demand. The answer is to increase the use of the above-mentioned measures and to utilise external cybersecurity firms that use sophisticated methods to bolster security. Firms that can manage the cybersecurity people shortage problem by using a high level of security risk rating and security assessment automation, which helps companies identify and mitigate security risk.
Organisations all around the world should branch out into new recruitment channels and utilise unconventional strategies and techniques to fill the skills gap. Organisations also need to train and grow security professionals who can build, code and leverage exponential technologies to meet the increasing demand in a constantly changing digital landscape.
How RiskXchange can help
RiskXchange’s risk rating and mitigation platform can be used as an additional way to help manage the cybersecurity people shortage by using its high level of security risk rating and security assessment automation, which can help companies identify and mitigate security risk. In order to achieve this, we are launching a new service called “RiskXchange People”.
“RiskXchange People” is a new and complementary service that allows companies to find and hire security specialists with a wide range of skills and experience from across the globe, without any of the normal recruitment fees.
Security specialists from “RiskXchange People” can be engaged on both short and long-term engagements to help companies solve a wide range of security challenges including those which have been identified using the RiskXchange risk rating and mitigation platform. All the Security specialists from “RiskXchange People” are fully trained in and certified on the RiskXchange Security platform.
More about RiskXchange
RiskXchange is an information security technology company, that helps companies of all sizes fight the threat of cyber threats by providing instant risk ratings for any company across the globe. RiskXchange was founded and is led by recognised experts within the security industry, who have held leading roles within companies such as IBM Security.
Find out more here.
