Talent Remains in High Demand Amid Cybersecurity Workforce Shortage

Over the last few years, the need for cybersecurity professionals has been multiplying. Yet, the demand is outpacing talent availability amid a cybersecurity workforce shortage, researchers from CyberSeek indicated.

According to the findings, employers listed nearly 770,000 job openings for cybersecurity professionals or jobs requiring cybersecurity skills during a 12-month period ending in September 2022.

Additionally, the demand for cybersecurity workers expanded 2.4 times faster than the overall rate across the US economy.

Compared to the last decade, nine of the 10 top months for cybersecurity job postings occurred in 2022.

"Demand for cybersecurity talent has been accelerating for years, and employers are showing no signs of taking their foot off the gas," Will Markow, vice president of applied research at Lightcast, said in a press release.

 “That’s why it is more important than ever to build robust talent pipelines to ensure a safer digital world. We can’t accept leaving holes in our cybersecurity defenses simply because we don’t have enough trained workers to plug them.”

The CyberSeek data also showed that total cybersecurity job postings for Q3 2022 were 30 percent higher than in 2021 and 68 percent higher than in 2020.  According to the supply-demand ratio, approximately 65 cybersecurity workers are in the labor market for every 100 cybersecurity job postings.

The cybersecurity profession continues to expand into specialized fields, such as penetration testing and threat analysis. There is also a similar expansion of cybersecurity skills requirements in adjacent positions such as auditor, software developer, cloud architect, and technical support engineer.

The rise in cybersecurity threats is a significant reason for the upswing in demand for qualified cybersecurity professionals.

In the case of a cyberattack, healthcare organizations may face risks to patient safety and high recovery costs because of inadequate staffing.

Despite the number of job openings, healthcare organizations struggle to fill the abundance of cybersecurity roles.

A report conducted by CyberMDX and Philips found that hospitals are struggling with a cybersecurity talent shortage. Respondents reported struggling to fill jobs within 100 days of posting new roles.

One-third of health IT teams said that they were inadequately staffed for cybersecurity. Over half of respondents admitted that their hospitals were unprotected against the common Bluekeep vulnerability.

In order to navigate the cybersecurity workforce gaps, some organizations like Jefferson Health are leaning on technology, investing in entry-level talent, and reducing the barriers to entry for aspiring cybersecurity professionals.

In a March 2022 interview with HealthITSecurity, Jefferson Health  vice president and CISO, Mark Odom, said that the organization was relying on automated technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms, and cloud applications to fill the gaps left by the cybersecurity shortage.

AI offers constant monitoring, the applications work 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. This consistent defense allows large quantities of data to be processed and threats to be detected quickly.

“We are also seeing a rapid acceleration into the cloud,” Odom, said.

"That reduces the workload, not only on your infrastructure team but also on your security team and your monitoring tools. You don't have near as many tools and nearly as many edges to defend."