Cybersecurity has been placed front and centre for most, if not all, organisations as the push for digital transformation continues on the backdrop of a global pandemic.
While there is a growing move to a relative state of normalcy after two years or remote and hybrid working, cybersecurity is still a critical concern and as a recent study from Tata Consulting Services (TCS) points out, employees are the main threat vector as a skills shortage poses the greatest new challenge.
The Risk & Cybersecurity Study by TCS notes that the lack of professionals with relevant expertise is what business leaders are going to be grappling with moving forward.
According to the study, half of companies in the EU and UK, 49 percent, plan to hire professionals with cybersecurity skills in the future. That figure is even higher in North America, with as many as two-thirds, 65 percent, intending to go looking for talent hunt in the coming months and years.
Added to this, 44 percent of chief risk officers (CROs) and chief information security officers (CISOs) report in the survey that they have already had difficulty in attracting talent with cyber risk and security skills in the past year, while 42 percent had an issue with retaining them.
The other big challenge for CROs and CISOs, as highlighted during much of the pandemic, is the increased risk posed by remote work.
“For example, innumerable employees had to be given remote access to their employer’s systems and databases at short notice due to the pandemic and the resulting move to remote work. This opens up new points of attack for cybercriminals. Assessing security risks and quantifying their costs is the third-biggest obstacle for the respondents,” TCS explains in a press release sent to Hypertext.
The report also noted that budgets are far less of a concern than that of a cybersecurity skills shortage.
“Only tenth place in the ranking are budget constraints. The fact that the latter are affecting fewer and fewer companies is shown by the high level of willingness to invest: 52 percent of UK and European companies and 62 percent of North American companies stated that they had increased their budgets for IT security since last year,” TCS highlights.
While the company’s study does not have local insight into the same sentiment regarding new threats, it looks like skills shortage is an issue plaguing South Africa too.
“The move towards WFH and emerging hybrid working models in the last 2 years has increased cyber security risks. This in turn has raised the demand for personnel skilled in cybersecurity fields, but these staff are difficult to find, and they come at a premium,” notes TCS South Africa Country head and executive director, Langa Dube.
“As businesses look to keep up with rapidly evolving complexities in cybersecurity, the talent gap is widening. Demonstrating a serious commitment to cybersecurity by sustained attention from senior leadership, funding, and process changes will be vital to recruiting and retaining top talent,” adds Bob Scalise, managing partner for Risk and Cyber Strategy, TCS.
With the most pertinent issue facing the local cybersecurity landscape now known, it will be interesting to see whether sizeable investment will be made in the necessary upskilling of current employees or acquiring knowledgeable talent.
To download and read the TCS master report on cyber confidence, head here.
[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]
