The State of the Security Workforce 2011

The State of the Security Workforce 2011

As of 2010, Frost & Sullivan estimates that there are 2.28 million information security professionals worldwide. This figure is expected to increase to nearly 4.2 million by 2015.

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Three out of five security professionals said they got a raise in 2010.

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The survey found that the average worldwide salary for (ISC)2 members was $98,600 and for non-members was $78,500 when both had about five years of experience.

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The survey showed that 34 percent of organizations plan to increase spending on personnel in 2011 and 37 percent plan to increase hardware and software expenditures.

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The budgets aren’t increasing as steadily for services. Only 25 percent of organizations have more budget for professional services and 28 percent for outsourced or managed services in 2011.

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About a third of organizations plan to increase spending for training and certifications this year.

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60 percent of security professionals plan to add new certifications to their resumes in the next year.

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89 percent of professionals view certifications as very important to somewhat important to employers.

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Application vulnerabilities represent the number one threat to organizations.

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41 percent of respondents reported that organizations need to better train infosec staff to handle application security.

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More than 20 percent of information security professionals reported involvement in software development.

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Mobile devices were the second highest security concern for the organization, right behind application vulnerabilities.

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Slightly under a third of respondents said they have no policies set to protect the organization from social media threats.

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More than 50 percent of information security professionals reported having private clouds in place, and more than 40 percent of respondents reported using software as a service.

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At the same time, more than 70 percent of professionals reported the need for new skills to properly secure cloud-based technologies.

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85 percent of respondents reported they were worried about exposure of confidential or sensitive information to unauthorized systems or personnel due to cloud computing.