Cyber Defense eMagazine August 2019

Let’s Come At The Cybersecurity Skills Gap From A New Angle
By Aidan McCauley, Vice President of Technology Investments, IDA Ireland
Chess players know the satisfaction of solving a skills gap. Succeed in advancing a pawn completely
across the board and it can become a queen, bishop, rook, or knight. The player now has a piece with
more ways, more angles, to come at opposing pieces.
One skills shortage problem in the larger world is the lack of individuals trained to thwart cybercriminals’
malicious actions. The size of the shortage is daunting. Worldwide over the next five to seven years,
businesses could find themselves unable to staff north of three million positions for cybersecurity
professionals.
In the United States the cybersecurity professional’s shortage is an equal opportunity problem, with firms
in every part of the country experiencing some degree of talent shortfall. Comparisons to chess
notwithstanding, this is no game, although it can seem that cybercriminals are continuing to make the
world their playground with impunity. For example, security firm Cybersecurity Ventures says that 2021
will see costs from cybercrime jump by $3 trillion from 2015. And just a few of the concerns that the
December 2018 McAfee Labs Threats Report notes are underground forums role in pumping up
cybercriminals’ effectiveness, the emergence of new malware families, and the rise of IoT malware 200%
over the previous year.
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