Companies are increasingly turning to new ways of recruiting security professionals. The network and security transformation is in full swing, not least because of the pandemic-related switch to the cloud. A good half of companies (54%) have already started such projects or are planning them for the next twelve months.
Almost all companies (99,5%) will be active here within the next five years. This also has implications for IT departments: According to a recent study commissioned by SASE specialists Netskope, one in four companies (28%) is expanding its security team or anticipates that it will grow due to the use of the cloud cover the scope of work. 46 percent of the companies are already having difficulties finding suitable candidates or expect this in the future.
46 percent cannot find any security specialists
"The network and security teams are going through an epochal change," said Frank Mild, director for German-speaking countries, Eastern Europe and CIS at Netskope. “We see clear changes in the structures and the composition of the teams. In addition, in every third company, the network and security teams will be merged over the next two years due to the sharp increase in cloud use, since separating the teams does not appear to make sense in the future. As a result of this and the escalating threat situation, there is an ever-increasing need for skilled workers, which is becoming increasingly difficult to satisfy.”
New ways of recruiting
The most common way (44%) when recruiting new employees is still to find candidates with existing Cloud/SaaS/IaaS skills and experience. Due to the well-known shortage of skilled workers, however, companies are increasingly going other ways: 38 percent of IT managers intend to look for applicants outside of the cyber skills or IT market and to train or retrain them. For almost a third (31%), outsourcing the security team is a way out of the tense personnel situation. Almost as many (30%) intend to move and retrain staff from networking, helpdesk and other internal teams.
Outsourcing the security team as a way out
“We are seeing a great deal of creativity among companies in the face of the challenge. Not only is there a growing awareness of cyber security, but also of the importance of having the appropriate staff,” says Mild. “The digital transformation makes it clear that IT is changing from being a blocker to an enabler. However, this is not yet evident everywhere, and some companies still have a lot of catching up to do. This is also made clear, for example, by the fact that almost every third company surveyed from Germany (31%) does not have a CISO - four percentage points less than the European average. A transformation has to take place in this area as well.”
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About netskope The SASE specialist Netskope connects users securely, quickly and directly with the Internet, every application and its infrastructure from anywhere and on every device. With a platform that combines CASB, SWG and ZTNA, the Netskope Security Cloud uses patented technology to offer the most granular context to enable access control and user awareness while simultaneously enforcing zero trust principles for data protection and threat prevention. While other providers compromise between security and network, the global Security Private Cloud from Netskope enables a complete calculation for inline traffic processing in real time directly at every service point.