Security Skills Gap Continues

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The National Convergence Technology Center’s (CTC) National Business and Industry Leadership Team (BILT) has long emphasized the need for IT students to learn security skills.  Indeed, the BILT urges that every class include instruction on security.  Specifically, since 2015, the BILT has asked instructors to find relevant moments in IT curriculum to ask students “Is this secure? Why or why not?” and “What would you to make it more secure?”  The BILT also recommends covering all domains of CISSP certification.

These concerns are backed up by a recent Tripwire survey of 315 security professionals in the U.S.  Overall, Tripwire suggests that while security needs continue to evolve, there is a worry in the industry that training isn’t necessarily keeping up.  Tripwire reports that 93% of respondents worry about the security skills gap, and 72% say it’s harder to hire skilled security staff than it was just two years ago.  To overcome these challenges, 91% report some outsourcing of security needs, and 98% expect non-security staff to get more involved in security strategies.

None of this is surprising, of course, but this kind of hard data can be useful in IT networking programs to help prove the ongoing IT security skills gap and help justify curriculum updates and grant proposals.