A recent study by Kaspersky revealed that 41% of companies worldwide suffer from a shortage of qualified cybersecurity specialists. This problem is most sensitive in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META) region, where 43% of companies suffer from understaffing, and this deficit is particularly evident in the jobs of malware analysts and information security researchers.

Kaspersky revealed the results of the study at the ninth annual Cyber Security Weekend (META 2024), which was hosted in Kuala Lumpur last week.

Lack of expertise in cybersecurity:
The increasing frequency and complexity of attacks, and the growing demand for information security professionals in the business have led to a shortage of practitioners meeting companies' requirements for skills and level of expertise.

Studies conducted by cybersecurity companies and international organizations have already highlighted the shortage of information security specialists, as research conducted by ISC2, which specializes in developing and enhancing the skills of cybersecurity professionals, revealed that the workforce gap was almost 4 million workers in the field in 2022.

Given the cybersecurity needs across industries, the government sector was the highest-demand sector for cybersecurity professionals, with reports showing that nearly half of the required information security jobs – (46%) – remain vacant.

The telecommunications and media sectors also suffer from a 39% understaff, followed by retail, wholesale and healthcare, with 37% of jobs still vacant.

Commenting on the study, Vladimir Dachenko, security expert in Kaspersky's Industrial Control Systems Emergency Cyber Response Team, said: "To reduce the shortage of qualified information security specialists, companies offer high salaries, working conditions, better reward packages, and invest in modern training using the most advanced knowledge. However, the results of the research show that these measures are not enough. The growth rate of the local IT market in some developing regions is changing very quickly, which means that the labor market cannot keep up by educating and training the right specialists in the skills and experience needed within these tight time margins. By contrast, regions with advanced economies and mature firms do not show such an acute shortage of information security specialists."

Kaspersky expert commandments:
To minimize the negative consequences of global cybersecurity staff shortages, Kaspersky experts recommend following these instructions:

Adopt managed security services such as Managed Discovery and Response (MDR) or Kaspersky Incident Response for additional experience without hiring new employees. They help protect against cyberattacks and investigate incidents even if the company has a shortage of cybersecurity specialists.

Invest in additional cybersecurity courses for employees to keep them up to date with the latest knowledge. With Kaspersky Expert training, information security professionals can develop their practical skills and the ability to defend their companies from attacks.

Use interactive simulators to test your own experience and assess your way of thinking in critical situations. For example, with Kaspersky's new interactive ransomware game, you can monitor how your company's IT department deploys, investigates, and responds to attacks, and makes fateful decisions with the game's main character.

Use centralized and automated solutions such as Kaspersky Extended Detection and Response (XDR) to ease the burden on your IT security team and reduce the likelihood of errors. These solutions provide effective threat detection and rapid automated response by aggregating and linking data from multiple sources in one place and using machine learning techniques.

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