When it comes to job growth there’s no better field to be in right now than IT security. Tim Wilson at Dark Reading shared a few highlights last week from analyzing U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data on IT security professional employment gains conducted by Information Security Media Group. The two most eye-opening results were:
- There was no joblessness in the IT security space in any of the four quarters of 2011,
- More than 51,000 security pros were employed in Q4, up from 37,000 employed in Q1.
Having talked with a lot of CIOs and CSOs, there is abundant proof that most companies have been underinvesting in security for the last 10 years (at least). It is also clear that the consequences of this strategy have now bitten a lot of company CEOs in the “you know what”, with bitter consequences: Good news – you and your CIO saved a ton of money on IT; bad news – the Attorney General’s office is on line 1 and they’re going to fine you for the terrible security at your organization that caused a massive breach.
My takeaway from the increase in hiring of IT security professionals is that since many companies are now no longer in survival mode, senior management has decided that slashing IT security investments was a clear false economy.
The same principle can be applied to the increased interest that my company is seeing from organizations that want to invest in security solutions. Generally it appears to be a classic case of “follow the leader” with regard to the categories of products and companies that get rolled in. It was only a matter of time before companies began to wake up to reality, given the innumerable data breaches that plagued almost every industry throughout 2011.
What do you think of the analysis of the BLS findings? Share your thoughts on the blog. You can also follow me on Twitter: @liebsoft or connect with me via LinkedIn.
