Year after year, the cyber talent gap is increasing — currently estimated to have 3,5 million open positions worldwide — presenting all sorts of headaches for leaders and the organizations they aim to protect. Moreover, organizations have a short window to identify, foster and hopefully retain a pipeline of emerging cybersecurity leaders to ensure the long-term sustainability and effectiveness of their security programs.
We will continue to see this gap increasing, as well as the urgency to explore new ways to attract more people to choose cybersecurity as their career choice. The cyberattacks demand countermeasures and illustrate why cybersecurity professionals are so important: the demand for skilled cybersecurity professionals has skyrocketed, creating a tremendous hiring landscape for tech-savvy professionals. As with any technical field, cybersecurity is fast-changing. Anyone who works in the area will need to be committed to keeping current with best practices and emerging industry trends and will always need to be learning and self-educating – both on and off the clock.
Years of experience in the field allow me to say that soft-side communications and leadership skills are profoundly lacking in the cybersecurity business. This has always been an issue in the technology field, but it is becoming more critical in business today because cybersecurity experts have to develop an ability to explain technical concepts in ways that business people understand: explain to top management what the risks are to the organization’s profit and reputation if it is hit with a data breach.
While some of the skills penciled in this guide are ones you should naturally have — for example, an inclination for analytical thinking and technology — others are ones you will need to develop through formal training and education. While working closely with individuals in other roles and departments, it is essential to be able to effectively communicate and explain your findings, concerns, and solutions to others. It is essential to be able to speak clearly and concisely on cybersecurity strategy and policy and to convey technical information to individuals of different levels of technical comprehension.
Depending on your background, a certificate or degree in cybersecurity is a good place to start – providing you with a solid foundation in the principles of cybersecurity, in addition to a cybersecurity overview across a variety of platforms, programming and development, digital forensic investigation, specific technical skills, and more. The awe-inspiring guide and his authors provide insight into cybersecurity education and training essential to building a well-informed and competent workforce. I would go beyond diversity, as the lack of women in cybersecurity goes well before you get to the profession. We shall get more girls interested in the field in the early days of school and maintain that interest in high school and college.
A cybersecurity professional working in this crucial field cannot succeed without the help of a professional organization capable of providing the knowledge, the networking community, and the tools he/ she will need to succeed. This guide will deliver all of these and more. So read it today and get ready to face the cyber threats of tomorrow!
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