London, UK: Reacting to the conclusions of the sixth (ISC)² annual security workforce study – which found more than half (56%) of the 12,000-plus respondents reporting their security departments as short-staffed and 15% unable to put a timeframe on their ability to recover from an attack – the organisers of the Infosecurity Europe show say this represents a potential IT disaster taking place in slow motion.
David Rowe, CISSP, a member of the Infosecurity Europe Advisory Council and Head of Business Services for Reed Exhibitions - the organisers of the Infosecurity Europe show – says that, with two-thirds of CISOs feeling short-staffed, it doesn’t take a genius to realise that the security of their businesses is going to be affected by this growing problem. And whilst salaries of qualified professionals will undoubtedly rise in the immediate future, a shortfall in new entrants to our business – as this report notes - is in no-one’s interests in the longer term, he adds.
“The bottom line here is that the information security industry needs to pull together and raise the profile of our industry. We also need to tap the power of the latest automated and semi-automated security systems in order to do more with less staffing resources - against a backdrop of 32% of respondents predicting increased spending on hardware and software, this will enable greater investment in technology, leading to improved levels of effectiveness and efficiency. We can’t solve the information security staffing problem overnight, but most organisations can extract extra levels of security by using the latest technologies – provided, of course, they are aware of these systems,” he said.
“This is why attendance at the 18th Infosecurity Europe Show – which opens its doors for a three-day run on the 23rd of April in London – has become even more important for any infosecurity professional wanting to raise his or her game, as well as that of their organisation. Only by understanding the nature of the latest security threats – and the technologies to counter them – can today’s IT security professionals hope to reduce the number of data breaches, and so help to make our industry more attractive to new entrants.
