No Cybersecurity Staff? Turn to Software Solutions

The world is in short supply of cybersecurity personnel.

According to this report by Frost & Sullivan, the cybersecurity workforce will be short 1.8 million people by 2022. Despite companies spending record sums—up to $150 million in some cases—on cybersecurity investments, many of the 19,000 cybersecurity experts surveyed had said they don’t have “enough workers to address current threats.”

“Unfortunately, the pipeline of security talent isn’t where it needs to be to help curb the cybercrime epidemic,” according to Robert Herjavec, founder and CEO at Herjavec Group, a global information security advisory firm. “Until we can rectify the quality of education and training that our new cyber experts receive, we will continue to be outpaced by the Black Hats.”

The Black Hats—a.k.a. hackers responsible for data breaches—will cost businesses $2 trillion by 2019 and $6 trillion annually by 2021. If you remember that half of all small businesses in the United States have been breached in 2016 alone, not to mention the recent large-scale cyberattacks on Equifax and Yahoo, then you know we’re in the middle of a widespread dilemma worsened by the lack of White Hats.

It’s not a pretty picture, but it’s not hopeless. As mentioned, companies are spending to recruit and train workers. There’s a glut of security conferences where recruiters can find potential employees. Companies should also investigate integrating heightened security tools and software to their operational overhead to better protect themselves and the subject data of customers from cyberattacks.

There are many applications and platforms that can help companies with their cybersecurity needs. Encryption solutions, which render sensitive information unintelligible whilst stored or processed in business applications, have rapidly become the answer to the rise in data breaches. --

Originally published on the eperi blog.