Criminal Data Breaches Will Cost Businesses $8 Trillion Over Next Five Years

The report also discusses the growing risk of cyberattacks for small and medium businesses (SMBs). The majority of SMBs spend less than $4,000 on cybersecurity measures ranging from identity and access solutions to treat risk detection. Furthermore, SMBs tend to run older software, which newer malware attacks including WannaCry have exploited. The research highlights a need for companies to invest more in cybersecurity and system upkeep.

Exacerbating the issue, however, is that there’s a shortage of security professionals in the market. Fortune documented the problem in 2015, and it hasn’t improved in the past 1.5 years. According to Cybersecurity Jobs Report, the cybersecurity workforce shortage may reach 1.5 million in the U.S. by 2019. Globally, the shortage could hit 6 million.

And the competition for securing talent is fierce. Governments are now in competition with private businesses to fill cybersecurity jobs to thwart their exposure to cybersecurity attacks.

While it seems logical that universities would be pumping out cybersecurity-trained students into the workforce, many technically-focused students don’t want to be pigeonholed. Instead, many are looking to create the next killer app or branch out into overall IT management.

Even though cybersecurity professionals make an average of $6,500 more per year than other information technology professionals, according to “Hacking the Skills Shortage,” from Intel Security and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, it’s not enough. The shortage of qualified cybersecurity experts, reliance on older technologies and increasingly more sophisticated hacker attacks are painting a pretty dismal picture for the future.

But, government organizations, universities and industry training programs are investing more funds to recruit and train the next generation of cybersecurity professionals. We applaud this investment. Everyone in our industry is consistently looking for security technology talent, and this future talent will have the training and opportunities to make an impact to prevent criminal breaches.

With a crushing need for security workers, more and more companies will be turning to solutions that help them better manage their security. That most certainly include solutions that help them with their identity and access management, such as those provided by Versasec. As an HR professional, I can say there’s never been a better time to land a job in a security-focused vendor company.

Want to work with the best of the best in identity and access management security? Check out our job postings.