Measuring the IT Security Skills Shortage's Extent

Although many businesses understand that they're ability to defend themselves from IT security attacks is relatively weak, most of them are not in a position to do much about it, according to the findings of a new survey of 4,000 business executives conducted by Kaspersky Lab. The good news is that investments in IT security are on the rise across the board. The biggest limiting factor, however, may not be the actual size of IT budgets. Rather, organizations are reporting that that even though almost half are looking to hire additional security personnel, nearly half also say there is a shortage of IT security talent. At the same time, half the respondents say that in terms of wages, it's becoming more difficult to recruit and retain IT security professionals. Those statistics bode well for increased demand for IT service providers in the channel. Yet, as short-handed as organizations are, only a little more than one-fourth of the respondents said an external audit of their IT security was an effective means of discovering whether the organization has been compromised. Channel Insider examines key takeaways from the study.