How much of the cybersecurity talent shortage is self-inflicted?

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.cyberscoop.com/cybersecurity-talent-shortage-self-inflicted-problem/

By Jeff Stone
CYBERSCOOP
September 19, 2019

Money matters when it comes to recruiting cybersecurity staffers. But, beyond 
salary, a combination of factors have contributed to the widespread skills 
shortage, and some issues are worsened by the industry itself.

Various studies suggest the shortage of qualified cybersecurity candidates is 
set to hit 3.4 million unfilled positions by 2021, up from the current level of 
2.93 million, with 500,000 of those empty seats located in the U.S. It’s the 
kind of existential problem that makes other headaches worse, resulting in 
possible data breaches not being investigated and the rise of untested security 
vendors hawking artificial intelligence tools that promise to help corporate 
security teams run with fewer humans.

And yet, while enterprise executives and recruiters agree there is a 
significant dearth of skilled security professionals, there is a surge of 
momentum behind the argument that the industry’s staffing shortage is 
self-inflicted. The lack of qualified job candidates isn’t just a 
supply-and-demand issue, according to a Forrester report published in July, but 
also a deeper failure of bias, expectation, compensation and commitment to 
effective recruiting and retention, analysts argue.

Too many hiring managers “expect to hire MacGyver but pay like McDonalds,” says 
the report.

[...]

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