Most sought after job today: Cyber security professionals

Chennai: In an age of ever-increasing cyber frauds and attacks, one of the most sought after jobs is that of cyber security professionals.

As the demand for the professionals are increasing from different sectors, supply is able to meet only one-tenth of the demand. The demand for professionals will touch 10 lakh by 2020, whereas the supply remains limited at 1 lakh.

In this age of data, it is imperative that data management and security be amongst the top priorities for large companies. Information is more vulnerable than ever, and stringent protocols, backed by solid defence technologies are being adapted to safeguard the companies from cyber attacks. Most governments are striving for digitalised economy, and this boosts the cyber security sector.

“The country has witnessed a 10-15 per cent increase in demand for cyber security professionals across sectors. Demand for security professionals in India will increase in all sectors due to the unprecedented rise in the number of cyber attacks. Demand will be one million skilled people by 2020 and supply is less than one lakh currently,” said Rituparna Chakraborty, president, Indian Staffing Federation.

“A 2016 skill gap analysis from ISACA estimated a global shortage of 2 million cyber security professionals by 2019. The NASSCOM recently estimated that India alone will need one million cyber security professionals by 2020 to meet the demands of the economy. Despite having the largest information technology talent pool in the world, India is highly unlikely to produce an adequate number of professionals to close the security skills gap,” said Shibani Patel, vice-president–India business, Collabera.

Every industry needs an IT security professional, but some industries are in greater need of cyber security than others. Any company that operates online needs security support. As technology evolves, the scope for security breaches increases hand-in-hand as attackers constantly come up with newer ways to work across firewalls and security barriers.

Government offices are a hotspot for cyber security professionals with all the confidential and highly sensitive information they handle on a daily basis, especially in the defence domain. Governments everywhere are becoming extremely mindful of cyber attacks from terrorist groups, foreign entities or any other group looking to hurt the country or the government, or acquire privileged information, said Patel.

Banking and finance is another sector which immediately requires cyber security as the country has moved into digital banking and payments very fast. In case there is a security breach at the bank, not only the money but also the private information could get stolen. In such cases, the banks as well as the customers face the brunt of the breach, making it extremely important to employ as many security measures as one possibly can.

Healthcare and retail too are in the line of sectors that need the help of these professionals.