Cybersecurity skill shortage puts Indian companies at greater risk: Report

Indian companies are suffering from skill storage in the cybersecurity domain, which puts them at greater cyber risk, cybersecurity firm Fortinet has found. As per the 2023 Global Cybersecurity Skills Gap report, 84% of the surveyed organisations in India said that the unfilled IT positions due to cyber skills shortage have led to additional cyber threats. 

“The report shows that over 80% of respondents find it challenging to hire certified professionals, which puts organisations at risk. To strengthen their security postures and stay ahead of the growing cyber threat landscape, it's essential for organisations to prioritise cybersecurity training and upskilling,” said Vishak Raman, vice president of sales, India, SAARC & Southeast Asia at Fortinet. 

For this study Sapio Research, on behalf of Fortinet, conducted interviews and surveys of 1,855 IT and cybersecurity leaders in countries like the US, Australia, India, Canada, Japan, China, and UAE, among others. 

The report indicates that the talent shortage has led to increased breaches — with 92% of surveyed companies in India experiencing at least one cybersecurity intrusion in the last 12 month; last year the percentage was 80%. The breaches are getting costlier too. Over 40% of the companies spent $1 million on remediation methods, up from 38% last year. Further, over two-thirds of organisations expect cyberattacks to increase in the next 12 months.  

To this end, 90% of the boards of companies are advocating hiring more IT security staff to protect against rising cybersecurity threats. Notably, the 2022 (ISC)² Cybersecurity Workforce Study found that about 3.14 million professionals are needed to close the global cybersecurity workforce requirement. 

Fortinet’s report found that Indian companies faired better compared to the global average when it came to hiring veterans for cybersecurity operations. Further, Indian companies engaged more women in cybersecurity roles (94%), compared globally (89%).  

Companies are also prone to favour persons with certifications and specific training when it comes to cybersecurity hiring. As per the report, 98% of Indian business leaders are preferring to hire candidates with tech-focused certifications. Over 80% of employers are even ready to financially sponsor cybersecurity certifications for their employees. That said, 80% of the respondents feel that it is difficult to find people with certifications. 

The rapid innovation in the field of AI has also given rise to unique cybersecurity challenges. For instance, as per last month’s report by Israeli cyber security firm, Check Point Research, OpenAI’s latest and most advanced AI model GPT-4 poses a risk of being manipulated by bad actors to generate malicious code.