It’s estimated that 63.5 percent of the world’s total population—or 5.07 billion people—uses the Internet today, with a projected 30.9 billion devices connected to the Internet by 2025. (This means even more proving to CAPTCHAs that we’re not robots–good luck picking out all the fire hydrants in the grids!) With more people working from home, combined with a greater reliance on cloud services and ecommerce, the potential for cyberattacks has never been higher.
Companies aren’t cutting corners either; in fact, they’re willing to invest big money on cybersecurity tools if it means protecting themselves. But while cybersecurity budgets and staffing needs continue to grow, there’s an acute shortage of professionals with the right skills. The global cybersecurity workforce gap has increased by 26.2% compared to 2021, with 3.4 million more workers needed. This leaves many organizations and governments vulnerable, with 80% saying they’ve suffered a breach in the last 12 months that could be attributed to a lack of cybersecurity skills and/or awareness.
With that in mind, here are three key ways your organization can overcome the cybersecurity skills gap:
Invest in Continuing Education
Support your employees by offering continuing education opportunities and flexible work hours to help them stay up-to-date on cybersecurity best practices. Whether it’s a new degree, more training, obtaining a certification, or attending a cybersecurity conference, encouraging employees to branch out and hone their skills is a proactive step that will boost your organization’s cybersecurity posture.
Automate (some) security processes
Automating certain systems, especially if your cybersecurity team is short-handed, can help prevent cyber threats and defend against future ones. In addition to providing deep and actionable insights, automation can often save time by doing the mundane and repetitive tasks for you, so you can spend more time on work that drives value. Some key cybersecurity automation tools include:
Continuous monitoring of your cybersecurity posture and that of your third- and fourth-party vendors and supply chain. Automating your self-monitoring and third-party risk management workflows allows you to cost-effectively scale your program without additional headcount.
Endpoint security software can automate the detection of viruses and threats at common endpoints, like servers, computers, and other devices, often with little to no human interaction.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions collect data from multiple sources across a network and use that data to detect and respond to security threats in real time before they escalate or disrupt operations.
Diversify your Cybersecurity Hiring & Recruiting
The next generation of cybersecurity professionals may not all hold advanced degrees in IT and computer science; it’s estimated that more than 80% of ethical hackers are self-taught. So it can be beneficial to consider candidates from non-traditional cybersecurity backgrounds and cast a wide net when filling out your team—think of them as the Avengers of cybersecurity (some heroes prefer keyboards to capes). Attending conferences to find talented people, fostering mentorships for aspiring IT and cybersecurity professionals, and looking for any opportunity to increase skill-sharing and collaboration will also go a long way in shoring up a talented squad.
Cybersecurity has become an increasingly complex field, and one system won’t work for every organization. You could have every state-of-the-art software and gadget on the market, but it takes buy-in from people to make a robust cybersecurity program work. Closing a skills gap by embracing new techniques, new people, and new opportunities will ensure that your organization’s resources, data, and reputation stay protected.
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The beginning of your journey to better cybersecurity starts with understanding your security rating, so you and your cybersecurity team can see the risk factors that need your attention. With your scorecard in hand, you can review the assets that make up your digital portfolio and identify potential issues, such as unmanaged endpoints, apps, web domains, and more.
SecurityScorecard’s enterprise cyber risk management integrates with the security tools you already have, which makes it easy to turn insights into actionable workflows. This allows you to maximize the impact of your security investments and scale your operations. Get your score now.