The cyber security skills crisis is becoming a reality, and it’s only getting worse – but innovation and diversity may help.

Digital innovation activities have exacerbated the skills shortage by broadening firms’ IT ecosystems—and hence their attack surface. This has increased the demand for specialist personnel to safeguard these assets. To put it another way, while the number of cybersecurity specialists is growing, demand is growing even faster. The existing skills gap disproportionately affects midsize and small enterprises, since large enterprises with brand equity frequently outbid them for people.

Smaller businesses are becoming more appealing targets for hackers, who use them to infiltrate their larger enterprise partners and consumers. Despite the enormous impact on each company, it is clear that no single solution will be sufficient to close the skills gap. While devising a comprehensive approach to staffing an increasingly vital function, organisations must be imaginative.

Technology-focused certification can assist bridge the gap, according to Fortinet’s assessment on the Widespread Impact of Cybersecurity Skills Shortage. Given today’s worrying skills gap, businesses should broaden their recruitment efforts beyond standard cybersecurity talent pools and workers to include those with specific qualifications. Technology-focused certificates are a tool that can help professionals in other fields swiftly learn cybersecurity abilities. According to this survey, 81 percent of respondents have obtained certifications, and 85 percent say others on their team have received qualifications.

According to Fortinet’s survey, the cybersecurity skills shortage has a significant negative impact on a wide variety of enterprises. Each company must respond to the crisis in accordance with its own risk tolerance and priorities, but it is evident that no single strategy will ever be sufficient. On the demand side, every dollar invested on technology that increases the productivity of cybersecurity specialists saves money on extra employment needs.

Establishing a security architecture that is integrated from end to end—across different clouds, data centres, and Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices at the network edge—is one of these steps. The use of AI to perform less sophisticated security tasks can also help to restrict the expansion of the cybersecurity team’s required personnel.

On the supply side, attempts to recruit employees from non-traditional talent pools will pay off in terms of broadening the team’s capabilities and views, as well as increasing the total number of cybersecurity employees in the sector.

Certification programmes can provide candidates with the skills they need to complete important security duties.

Veterans are one group that may be able to give highly qualified applicants who can, in many situations, strike the ground running. Individual organisations can handle their own skills shortages over time by focusing on staff retention.

Companies that pay above-average salaries and take effort to keep their workplaces healthy and affirming will see lower turnover and, as a result, a shorter cyber-security skills scarcity over time. Regardless of individual firms’ efforts, the cybersecurity skills deficit is not going away anytime soon. Companies who respond to the crisis most effectively will take a multidimensional, strategic strategy, which will pay off in enhanced security and profitability.

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