If you’re an IT professional in India seeking job security and good career growth, cyber security would be the field to be in as the country is currently facing a whopping 75 per cent talent shortage in the cyber security domain.
According to a report published by the Data Security Council of India (DSCI), talent shortage is one one of the biggest challenges organisations face in the country with the workforce gap reaching approximately close to eight lakhs in 2023.
Industry experts believe that this threat is only going to increase manifold with the emergence and growing popularity of Artificial Intelligence, especially Generative AI, in the coming years, a situation that the industry is ill-equipped to handle. Despite the abundance of IT talent pool in the country, engineers with skills in niche areas such as cyber security are hard to find, claim IT managers and head hunters across the country.
According to Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-in), Cyber security incidents in the country grew annually of over 60 per cent between 2018 and 2022 with over 191 incidents of data leak and data breach reported in 2022.
India is also ranked second in the world in terms of malware spread in 2023 only after the United States which is ranked number one in the world for malware spread, claims the 2023 Sonicwall Cyber Threat report.
Experts claim that there has also been a significant increase in ransomware attacks due to the emergence of Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS), which has brought down the entry barriers for threat actors, enabling a broader range of individuals to participate in and contribute to the increasing prevalence of ransomware incidents.
According to a report by Simplilearn, a Bengaluru-based organisation specializing in providing IT training, the world faces a substantial threat in the form cybercrimes in the current digital environment and the financial losses globally are estimated to be around $10.5 trillion by 2025. The report underscores the heightened consumer risks due to the escalating frequency of personal data breaches, further intensifying fraud and identity theft concerns.
The report points out that the rise in cyber threats globally highlights the increasing need for qualified cybersecurity professionals who must stay ahead of vulnerabilities as hackers continue to innovate. Forecasts for the global cybersecurity market from 2023 to 2030 show a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.8%, underscoring the need for a trained workforce to fend off changing threats.