PRESS RELEASE: Battling the Security Skills Gap

• by Anthony Orjally
• Advent IM Blog

Building and nurturing future talent through industry leadership

The information security industry is battling a skills gap that is predicted by the ONS to be a generation long. As skills are scarce, recruitment has become difficult and expensive, this will continue and businesses, public sector and government alike all face security threats stemming from this scarcity. Those threats affect us all, in all walks of life.

In July, the UK Government issued a report that highlighted some disturbing facts about the state of UK cyber and information security skill availability. Half of all businesses have a basic cyber security skills gap and a third have a more advanced skills gap. This means that security incursions need not be complex or sophisticated in order to be successful for 50% of businesses. The number of vacancies posted has seen an increase of 30% on the previous year and a staggering 37% of vacancies were reported as ‘hard-to-fill’.

“Information security professionals, particularly leadership, need to engage with potential joiners to ensure they have access to mentoring, thought leadership and opportunity,” says, Mike Gillespie, MD of Advent IM – an information security consultancy and longstanding practitioner and business leader. He went on to say,” Not enough young people are coming through into the cyber security arena and we are facing a skills crisis. I am delighted to have recently achieved Fellowship of the Charted Institute of Information Security because this will enable me to push the agenda of the development of the next generation and also to encourage the industry to look at people with aptitude who can learn rather than a sole focus on high-end qualifications. Those are the people who we need to be part of the future of cyber and information security. We really can’t afford to be complacent about this.”

Gillespie recently celebrated not only his CIISec Fellowship but also twenty-five years in the industry, “But it isn’t about my generation anymore. We need to future proof our industry because the challenges are only set to increase,” he added.