Fight Fire with Fire

5Addressing the Skills and Diversity Gap

LISA DONNAN

 

With millions more jobs than workers, the demand for both frontline cybersecurity workers and leaders is outpacing the supply. Beyond the overall shortage of cybersecurity workers, a vast diversity gap encompasses every facet of diversity, including race, ethnicity, orientation, and disability status. Most notably females, who make up half the population, comprise only about 24% of cybersecurity workers.¹

This chapter offers guidance to CISOs on ways to bridge the skills and diversity gap as well as advice to anyone seeking a job in cybersecurity. Moreover, without inclusion as part of the equation, bridging the gap will not be as successful or long-term. It is like recruiting for a sports team: one part of the task is hiring the diversity, and the other is putting that talent on the field. If you hire diverse candidates and then keep them on the bench, you have not moved the ball—or the strategy—forward.

Assessing the Skills Gap

The need for cybersecurity workers is immense.² Cybersecurity Ventures³ estimates the shortage at 3.5 million and notes that every IT position is a cybersecurity position now.

A majority of CISOs⁴ are worried about the skills gap. Fortinet research⁵ found that more than two-thirds of organizations struggle to recruit, hire, and retain cybersecurity talent. That struggle translates into real problems. Nearly three-fourths of organizations experienced a breach or intrusion within the last year ...