There are nearly a million open positions in the cybersecurity field today. That is nearly a million vacancies trying to snatch up the top talent.
Will your organization be able to even afford to compete with all of the companies and organizations hunting for their cybersecurity golden bullet?
The biggest surprise to many in the US is that the skill gap exists at all.
But to recruiting experts focused on cybersecurity it is clear why a huge gap exists between supply and demand.
While many of us might think ‘my IT team can handle security’, what many folks don’t understand that cybersecurity is inherently a different beast.
IT teams are constantly looking for short cuts.
Your IT team is probably trying to make technology easier. They’re trying to make their jobs easier so that you and the rest of your team gets a quicker experience.
Who likes to call IT with problems? I don’t think many of us appreciate having to deal with computer problems and only want whatever headache we’re facing now fixed ASAP.
IT professionals are focused on getting their job done— your IT or tech team only wants to get the ticket they are working on done. Most of the time, their tickets are not specifically addressing security issues, so they aren’t acutely focused on security measures or best practices to keep you and your users safe when they’re resolving an issue. Their primary mission is to resolve the ticket as fast as possible (this after all is how they are being evaluated).
IT teams want users to be happy— the happier a user is with someone on your IT team, the more people they will have to back up that they are indispensable members of your tech team. If your users are not asking or checking up on the state of the security of their accounts, software or machines, the reality is that your tech team is probably not either. Your IT guy or gal simply wants to get what your users want done so that they can have another satisfied user in their hat.
IT teams do not want change—the biggest reason for why IT and Cybersecurity are not the same is that IT does not revolve around change. Yes, I know that new technologies are rolled out. But the fact of the matter is that it takes a technician a long time to wrap their head around changing a process. You see, IT is about consistency. IT professionals are striving to get consistent results and consistent resolutions to problems. If security—which is dynamic and changing—were added to the routines of IT, many technicians would not have the comfort of day to day consistency and predictability in resolving issues quickly.
So what can you do to ensure you have security taken care of?
Many experts in cybersecurity recruiting are now advising clients to employ an outsourced advisory solution that guides their facility towards security and compliance needs.
Instead of employing a full time (expensive) security expert to oversee IT getting security right, many hospitals have turned to seeking a part time advisor that ensures month to month that your security is working the way you expect.
