A National Audit Office (NAO) report released earlier this year warned that a lack of skilled workers is hampering the UK's fight against cyber crime, and estimates it is costing the UK public £18 to £27 billion annually.
According to this report, the number of IT and cyber security professionals in the UK has not increased in line with the growth of the internet, and this skills gap will take years to close. BAE Systems has announced it’s taking steps to help plug the cyber skills gap with nearly half of its graduate recruits this year going into its cyber security business.
Commenting on the shortage of cyber security skills in the UK, Bill Walker, security analyst and technical director, QA said:
There is clearly a critical and growing need for companies to plug the cyber skills gap and graduates are a great starting point. Longer term, organisations need to take big steps to attract and retain more women in the cyber security sector, in which they are currently hugely under-represented.
This is a wise step by BAE, but will only address a fraction of the problem. Our records show that cyber security training business has more than doubled in the past year, but even we see huge scope for further growth in this area if we are to even start to close the skills gap.
A career in cyber security looks set to have a very robust future. Regardless of the tough economy, cyber security is going to grow and grow. There is an ideal opportunity here for anyone in IT to retrain and specialise in cyber security and it should also give any graduate a long and highly desirable career path.