Information security is more than a technical issue; it blends risk, strategic vision and knowledge of the threat landscape with people and data management. And yet, the Marlin Hawk report, Global Snapshot: The CISO in 2020, says 62% of Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) think the global cybersecurity talent shortage will get worse over the next five years.
The report suggests that the demands of such a rapidly evolving role mean that senior candidates often lack the right level of technical knowledge (34%), don’t have the right experience (30%) or simply aren’t the right cultural fit (10%).
Source: Global Snapshot: The CISO in 2020, Marlin Hawk
"As the need to protect customer data grows, business leaders have been attempting to work out how best to respond to this new reality, and, most importantly, whose responsibility it should be. The constant cyber threat has completely changed the way boards around the world approach risk, and it’s an issue that every business leadership team has had to respond to," said John-Claude Hesketh, global managing partner at Marlin Hawk, a global executive search firm.
He added that the challenge is for board directors to work out how to value these senior cybersecurity professionals and integrate them into strategic business decisions, whilst navigating a dramatic global talent shortage.
Career opportunity?
CISO’s tend to be relatively young at average of 45 years for 73% of those that took part in the survey. Why CISO? Twenty-nine per cent took the role because they want to be at the forefront of one of the biggest business growth areas.
There is rarely a clear upward progression from the CISO role: A symptom of this is that 85% of senior cybersecurity professionals are either actively looking for a new role or would consider one if approached. The average tenure in CISO roles globally is four years.
Source: Global Snapshot: The CISO in 2020, Marlin Hawk
Still it pays well to be in the security space. The report that outside of the US, APAC employers pay well for security professionals.
Challenges ahead
Source: Global Snapshot: The CISO in 2020, Marlin Hawk
Ron Green, CSO at Mastercard, hinted that: "Machine learning and automation are going to be really helpful to current and future CISOs. Businesses are still going to need smart humans on security but already the humans that are in our security operations centres are being overwhelmed with things they have to monitor and you can't simply keep putting in more people because there aren't enough people already."
Looking further out (next ten years), David Holloway, chief executive officer at Marlin Hawk, commented that: "Cybersecurity threats are real and the size of the challenges to come are large. From the 1980s when technology began replacing open-outcry trading floors to the advance of ecommerce in today's world, cyber poses possibly the biggest risk to human and financial security now and in the future."
