

And unfilled jobs mean unprotected assets, as well as plenty of career potential for anyone seeking to move into or advance in an information security career. alone has 40,000 unfilled jobs for information security analysts, with an additional 200,000 unfilled cybersecurity related jobs.

Those candidates have plenty of jobs to choose from. Data shows that 84 percent of organizations think that only half or even fewer of the applicants are actually qualified, and it’s taking up to six months for an organization to find the right candidate to hire. In part, this is because many who apply for the jobs lack the training for the job. According to data on the cybersecurity skills gap compiled by ISACA, the number of available cybersecurity jobs is growing three times faster than other tech jobs and we will see a global shortage of two million cybersecurity professionals by 2019. The jobs are there, and like the attacks-are increasing in numbers. Perhaps this employee shortage is one reason companies lag behind in protecting their data and infrastructures? You’ll Find Plenty of Job Openings in Cybersecurity This is sound advice, but there is one glitch: A business can’t make cybersecurity a priority without employees trained for the role, and we have a huge shortage of qualified candidates. What is a business to do? Experts say that data breaches and cyber attacks will only increase in frequency in the future, and therefore cybersecurity must become a part of the way companies do business in order to be in some way protected. companies an average of $7 million, and this is a cost that businesses will keep on paying because attacks will keep happening. It’s estimated that data breaches cost U.S.

Then there are the fines and lawsuits that also add up. They face the cost of recovery too, as well as revenue lost as a result of the disruption-a recovery that can take weeks or even months. Not only do companies suffer financially due to falling share prices, bad publicity and lack of consumer confidence, in addition to losing their data or having to pay to recover it. With these kinds of attacks on the rise, why are companies lagging in preparedness? Why are these attacks becoming commonplace? Especially when the costs are so high. Why Aren’t Companies Proactive in Protection? More than half of businesses recently surveyed in the U.S., U.K., and Germany are unprepared for a cyber attack, according to the Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report. And when businesses are targeted, most won’t be ready to defend themselves. Within only the last few months, we’ve seen the WannaCry ransomware attack in May and the GoldenEye attack in June.Īs the latest in a long line of victims, the Equifax data breach is particularly frightening not only because of the scope of the types of information stolen, but also, it serves as an example of what can happen when hackers target an organization. So far in 2017, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), Arby’s, Chipotle and even Gmail have fallen victim to data breaches, to name only a few. Last year in 2016 alone, over 2.2 billion records were exposed in 3,000 data breaches. If you think these kinds of attacks like we just witnessed with Equifax are on the rise, you’re right. And that means plentiful opportunities for those considering cybersecurity careers. Everyone is vulnerable, from consumers to corporations-even governments the world over. However, it’s not just consumers who are falling victim to hackers at an increasing rate.
EQUIFAX DATA BREACH ANALYSIS LICENSE
That personal information included Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, license plate numbers, credit card numbers and more.Īlthough the attacks at Yahoo! in recent years were much larger in scale with 1 billion consumers affected, the kind of personal information made vulnerable in the attack on Equifax makes this data breach much more frightening-at least in the eyes of the consumers (who are also concerned that the company waited six weeks before revealing the attack). By now you’ve probably heard that the personal information of up to 143 million consumers was hacked when Equifax, one of the world’s largest credit reporting agencies, fell victim to a data breach.
