Asia-Pacific faces huge 2.16 mn cybersecurity workforce shortage

NEW DELHI: Despite adding more than 4,64,000 workers in the past year, the cybersecurity workforce gap has grown more than twice, and in the Asia-Pacific region, the shortage exceeds 2.16 million, putting organisation at a "moderate" to "extreme" risk of cyber attacks, a new report has revealed.

The size of the global cybersecurity workforce is currently at 4.7 million people. However, the cybersecurity field is still critically in need of more professionals, according to the 2022 ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study.

"To adequately protect cross-industrial enterprises from increasingly complex modern threats, organisations are trying to fill the worldwide gap of 3.4 million cybersecurity workers," the findings showed.

The report surveyed 11,779 international practitioners and decision-makers to gain their unique perspectives and experiences about working in the modern cybersecurity profession.

While the global cybersecurity workforce grew 11.1 per cent year-on-year, adding 464,000 roles in 2022.

Asia-Pacific clocked the highest growth at 15.6 per cent, while EMEA's workforce expanded by 12.5 per cent.

North America, which saw the least growth (6.2 per cent), still has the largest pool of cybersecurity professionals at 1.34 million.

"The workforce gap is not going unnoticed by cybersecurity workers as nearly 70 per cent feel their organisation does not have enough cybersecurity staff to be effective. The shortage is particularly severe in aerospace, government, education, insurance and transportation," said the study.

More than half of employees at organisations with workforce shortages feel that staff deficits put their organisation at a "moderate" or "extreme" risk of cyberattack. And that risk increases substantially when organisations have a significant staffing shortage. (IANS)

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