Cyber ​​UK’s fastest-growing tech field, but skills gap remains

Four years after an ill-timed announcement from the NCSC encouraging people to consider retraining in cyber security, security appears to be the fastest growing technology field in the UK, with the number of people in security roles more than doubling in the last three years. years, according to a new report produced by security consultancy Socura, entitled His next job was in the cyber field.

The infamous ad featured a young dancer with the phrase “Fátima’s next job could be in the cyber field. She just doesn’t know yet.” It provoked derision in 2020 and was described as rude by the then Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, at a time when the UK’s cultural sector was struggling to recover from the damage suffered during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Based on an analysis of annual population survey data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), Socura said the number of cyber professionals in the country rose from 28,500 in December 2021 to 65,000 in March this year.

However, the headline statistic masks the fact that there is still a huge shortage of security professionals in the UK and, if we dig deeper into the statistics, the cyber workforce is becoming less diverse, with the proportion of women in the sector falling from 23.8% in December 2021 to 17.5% in March 2024.

And when compared to IT professions, security professionals are still scarce compared to programmers and software developers, of which there are about 560,000, IT managers, totaling about 240,000, and IT business analysts, architects and systems designers, totaling approximately 195,000.

Socura CEO Andy Kays said there were clearly still not enough security workers to tackle the rising threat levels faced by UK organisations, with data showing one security professional for every 86 companies.

“Cyber ​​security may be the fastest growing IT occupation in the UK, but skills shortages in the industry continue to be a concern,” said Kays. “Many companies simply do not have the experts needed to defend themselves against cyberattacks.

“To solve this problem at a national level, we need more initiatives, such as the Academic Centers of Excellence supported by the NCSC, and ways to reach young people so they can discover technology in schools. For organizations struggling to recruit cybersecurity experts, finding a trusted managed services partner to bolster capabilities and ease the burden remains vital to closing the gap.”

Kathryn Jones, head of the School of Computer Science and Informatics at Cardiff University, added: “Attracting more workers, especially women, into cyberspace remains a key challenge for the industry.

“However, gender imbalance and low representation of women is a broader issue in the technology sector, not just cybersecurity. The number of women enrolled in computer science and software engineering courses, for example, also tends to be low.

“Cyber ​​security is an exciting and varied career choice, but more initiatives like the NCSC’s Cyber ​​First Girls competition are needed to raise awareness,” said Jones.