Despite sometimes swingeing budget cuts last year, organisations are beginning to hire security professionals again in key areas, according to a survey of 3,000 security professionals.
More than half (55.2%) of the EMEA respondents to the (ISC)2 survey said they would be adding to their workforce with permanent or contract staff this year. This is an improvement from last year, when 43% said they were hiring, Many of them were looking to hire at least three staff this year.
Five key skills areas were in demand: operations security; information risk management; security management practices; telecoms and network security and finally the ISO/IEC code of practice for information security management.
Overall, the picture seems far rosier than in 2009. While over two-thirds had budgets cut last year, most of them (48%) somewhat or significantly, the situation seems to have stabilised and 47.5% of respondents expect no change in their budgets for 2010. Similarly, while 22% expect to lay off staff this year, this is half the amount of staff losses in 2009.
The aftershock of economic downturn are still being felt, however, as almost of third of EMEA respondents believed it has upped their company’s security risks, particularly in the area of employee misconduct.
“These findings are in line with our own research which tells us that 92% of organisations expect security breaches to increase in 2010. This concern coupled with the reliance of so many organisations on IT and online services are factors that are driving renewed investment in information security technology and services,” says Claire Sellick, event director Infosecurity Europe.
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