Is the cybersecurity talent shortage a crisis or opportunity?
Despite a clear increase in cyber threats, the tech sector finds itself short of cybersecurity professionals. Some reasons include uncompetitive salaries for entry-level roles and legacy hiring criteria, says cybersecurity firm F5’s Adam Judd.
The cybersecurity field is still in critical need of more professionals, so much so that industry analysts and researchers call it a crisis.
According to the 2022 Cybersecurity Workforce Study by non-profit ISC2, the global shortage of cybersecurity workers widened by 26.2 per cent to 3.42 million, with the Asia-Pacific region alone chalking up a gap of 2.16 million cybersecurity workers.
The study estimated that there were 77,425 cybersecurity workers in Singapore, with a workforce gap of 6,071.
INCREASING PREVALENCE OF CYBERCRIME
The detrimental effects of this talent shortage are profound.
Ransomware has now emerged as the new public enemy number one for businesses, governments, and consumers; and attacks on entities of all sizes have been on the rise. The Cyber Security Agency of Singapore reported 137 ransomware cases in 2021, a 54 per cent jump from the 89 reported in 2020.
There have also been new forms of scams, such as tricking F&B businesses into paying fake suppliers through fake reservations and orders. Scammers have also tricked victims into filling in Google forms with the Singapore Police Force insignia to access the victims’ internet banking accounts or into downloading a malware-infected fake ScamShield app.