Help Wanted: Businesses Seek Information Security Professionals

Enterprises worldwide need more infosec professionals and are willing to pay high salaries for experienced talent, says new survey.

10 Companies Driving Mobile Security (click image for larger view and for slideshow)
It’s good times for information security professionals: In 2011, only 7% experienced unemployment, and 70% saw an increase in salary. In 2012, more than half expect to see their salary increase.
Those findings come from a new survey of 2,250 information security professionals in 87 countries, conducted by information security professional body (ISC)2. Interestingly, 96% of the respondents were employed at the time they took the survey.
In other words, despite the lagging economy, demand continues to be strong for information security professionals. In spite of all the things that are going on that one would normally expect to have negative effects on job employment across the board, it really doesnt seem to be manifesting for security people, said Hord Tipton, executive director of (ISC)2, via phone. In 2011, notably, 72% of organizations said that they hired information security personnel, and 62% said they plan to hire more permanent or contract employees for that purpose this year.
According to Tipton, demand for information security professionals appears to be strong worldwide. Looking across all sectors and all types--and this is not just a U.S. survey--there is consistency across the board in the findings. No one country stands out, so its essentially a global situation, he said.
[ Whats in store for mobile security? See
Mobile Securitys Future: 4 Expert Predictions
. ]
One explanation for the apparent job security is the fact that the
frequency and complexity of attacks
against businesses and government agencies appears to be increasing. Notably, 56% of survey respondents said theyd seen their organizations security risks increase in 2011, for which one-third blamed on the profusion of
mobile devices in the enterprise
. As a result, 30% of surveyed organizations said theyll increase their
security budgets
in 2012.
When it comes to the discipline of information security, whats hot? For respondents who said theyll be hiring, the top skills theyre seeking are a solid grasp of information security concepts (for 80%), technical skills (76%), and relevant experience (72%). Other top skills include operations security (55%), security management practices (52%), access control systems/methodology (51%), security architecture/models (50%), risk management (49%), telecom/network security (45%), applications/system development security (44%), and cloud/virtualization (35%).
At least half of hiring organizations appear to be seeking security generalists. One of the things we see, particularly with the tightening economy, is that while it would be nice [for organizations] to have deep technical specialists in all facets of operations, thats just not realistic. Budgets do not allow that, and when you see the listing of skills theyre looking for ... theyre really looking for multi-focused people, said Tipton.
Regardless, information security appears to be a sellers market. Notably, while one-third of respondents said theyd changed jobs, half of them said they made the move because it offered better opportunities for advancement. On the flip side, half of organizations report that its been somewhat difficult to
find good-fit candidates for open security positions
, while one-third said its been very difficult. Furthermore, hiring appears to often be a drawn-out process. One-third of organizations reported that it had taken between three and six months to fill an open security position, while 13% said it required more than six months.
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Help Wanted: Businesses Seek Information Security Professionals