Cybersecurity is important. As cyberattacks on companies continue to increase, corporate executives and boards are realizing security is not just an IT problem, it's a business problem.
"The smart companies, those that will succeed in the long-term, will invest in security and do the right thing" said Jason Hoffman, CSO at marketing automation software vendor Marketo. And investing in security means investing in people.
It's a good time for those who have chosen a career in security, since just over half of security executives and managers surveyed reported that they expect their IT staff headcount to increase in the coming year.
Salaries are also on the rise, according to Computerworld's 2016 IT Salary Survey. Information security manager is currently the hottest job in IT with the biggest increase in average total compensation, up 6.4% from 2015 to 2016. In addition, 76.1% of security pros surveyed said that their base salary increased since one year ago.
"Security is not going away," says Hoffman. "With the proliferation and monetization of big data, companies need security professionals to help them protect the data." The survey results agree with Hoffman as 73.2% of security pros said that they think that a career path in IT and the potential for salary advancement is more promising than most other career paths.
However, according to 23.2% of security pros and 12.3% of all IT pros, the IT talent shortage is the biggest challenge facing the IT industry.
"With an unemployment level hovering around 0%, hiring experienced security professionals generally means poaching talent from the company down the street," said Robb Reck, CISO at Ping Identity. "All that does is move the talent gap down the road, only exacerbating the issue of a talent shortage. The better we do at finding and training up new security professionals, the more we are helping the world in general."