Cybersecurity Workforce Gap Leaves Many Organizations Underprotected

Amy Larsen DeCarlo – Principal Analyst, Security and Data Center Services

Summary Bullets:

• (ISC)² reports that while big gains have been made in hiring cybersecurity professionals around the world in 2022, the number of unfilled positions have expanded dramatically.

• Nearly 70% of the 11,779 professionals surveyed for the study say understaffing made their organizations vulnerable.

With the volume of threats on a seemingly endless upward trajectory, awareness of how critical it is to have effective security technology and personnel in place has been a long-time board-level concern. Unfortunately, lack of resources, particularly of the human variety, has plagued the security industry for years. Despite some major efforts across industries to bring in more security talent, there are still major gaps in coverage. In its 2022 Cybersecurity Workforce study, the non-profit security professional’s organization (ISC)² report an 11.1% increase in the number of security professionals in the workforce globally. This represents an addition of 464,000 security staff in the last year. Unfortunately, demand is outstripping supply. The number of unfilled IT security positions has more than doubled to a 26.2% increase in the last year, which translates to more than 3.4 million vacant spots.