Within the last 10 years, professionals and private individuals have experienced tremendous growth in cyber-attacks. Everyone and every business, no matter the size and the social status, is now exposed to cyber criminality as long as they use a smartphone or internet. This digitalisation of the world has created a playground for cyber criminals, using more and more complex methods.
To respond to this growth, the demand for cyber security experts is expanding and is projected to rise by 37% by 2022. There are currently nearly three million people working in cyber security worldwide and we will need four million more to meet the demand in the future… 23% of businesses are already claiming to have a significant shortage of staff dedicated to cyber security according to (ISC)2 report.
Even though the cost of hiring cyber security employees is high and doesn’t seem necessary to most businesses, cybercrime is predicted to cost six trillion dollars by 2021, twice more than in 2015.
The cyber security future is bright for cyber professionals who will have plenty of choices for their careers, however, employers will probably experience some competition to secure the people they want
What do we do to make sure those job demands will be met?
To prevent a talent shortage in a few years, more and more universities are now offering cyber security degrees. But according to the professionals in the field, those courses are too theoretical and don’t properly train the graduates for the real breaches they will experience. This has led to having a skills shortage of qualified cyber security professionals over the last three years.
Nevertheless, cyber security educators are confident about the increasing content and software skills being taught in educational programs in the future. They are conscious of the continuous professional development they have to provide to their students to meet the increasing demand of skills needed to tackle the more resourceful hackers around the world.
In the meantime, how do you improve your cyber security skillset?
Many online certificate programs currently exist from technical training companies such as Cisco and Microsoft.. Organisations like (ISC)2 also offer the opportunity to train and obtain further skills to meet the market’s demands.
You can also try some cyber security boot camps online such as Evolve Security Academy or SecureSet Academy covering topics like cryptography, information security, data analytics, and blockchain.
The future of your cyber security career is promising, so keep improving your skillset to be able to apply to a wide range of job opportunities.
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