Survey shows shortage of skilled cyber security professionals
24 Jan 2015
A new global survey of over 3,400 members of IT association ISACA has revealed there is a global shortage of skilled cyber security professionals.
The survey found that 86 per cent of the respondents felt there was a global shortage of skilled cyber security professionals and only 38 per cent felt prepared to fend off a sophisticated attack.
The survey found that close to half (46 per cent) of those polled expected their organisation to face a cyber attack in 2015 and 83 per cent believed cyber attacks were one of the top three threats facing organisations today.
Robert E Stroud, CGEIT, CRISC, international president of ISACA and vice president of strategy and innovation at CA Technologies said ISACA supported increased discussion and activity to address escalating high-profile cyber attacks on organisations worldwide.
He added, as Washington called for action, ISACA hoped they took a clear and straight-forward approach, working in close coordination with industry. Cyber security was everyone's business, and creating a workforce trained to prevent and respond to today's sophisticated attacks was a critical priority, he added.
The 2015 Global Cyber security Status Report, conducted between 13 and 15 January, was based on online polling of 3,439 ISACA members across 129 countries, including 1,211 members in the US.
As per the survey results, 76 per cent agreed or strongly agreed with president Obama's proposed federal law requiring companies to notify consumers of a data breach within 30 days.
In response to queries about obstacles to timely notification, respondents ranked company concern about corporate reputation first (55 per cent), followed by inadequate system design (15 per cent), increased cost (13 per cent) and insufficient staffing (10 per cent).
Data breaches at a number of well-known retailers in 2014 had made data security highly visible to consumers and highlighted the struggles that companies faced in keeping data safe while finding and retaining skilled cyber security employees was another challenge.
