Impact on Cybersecurity Jobs During the Pandemic
As countries around the world have been facing this global pandemic, unemployment rates have been skyrocketing amidst the uncertainty caused by Covid-19.
Canada reported a record-high unemployment rate of 13.7% in May, which had risen from 5.5% at the start of 2020 and topped the previous record of 13.1% from December 1982. This equates to over five million people being out of work, many of them due to businesses shutting down and people staying at home to avoid spreading the coronavirus.
Cybersecurity, however, is one of the few sectors that seems to have escaped the economic downturn, as many employers are actively recruiting new talent.
Increase in Cyber-Attacks During Pandemic
There has been a significant increase in cyber-attacks during the pandemic. In fact, according to results from the COS Pandemic Impact Survey, 26% of respondents had seen an increase in volume, severity, or scope of cyber-attacks since mid-March. The financial sector has been particularly impacted with 37% seeing an increase.
More Remote Workers
The increase in cyber-attacks seen in March has mostly been attributed to the larger number of people working from home during the global crisis. The unexpected shift to remote working left many companies more vulnerable as they have less secure networks, technology, and personnel activity.
A total of 61% of respondents reported being concerned about the increase in attacks targeting these employees specifically. They were right to be worried too, as the Centre for Internet Security (CIS) has seen a marked increase in remote desktop protocol (RDP) attacks, due to malicious exploitation of teleworking capabilities.
Increased Vulnerability
Organizations may also be more vulnerable to attacks, and/or experience a larger impact from certain types of cyber-attacks.
When you have a large workforce logging on to a server remotely, they could act as an unintentional distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack, plus if there was no time to set up multi-factor authentication, then there is also a greater risk from credential stuffing attacks. A DDOS attack will also be a lot more disruptive than usual, if the entire workforce is working remotely, relying on access to a server.
Personnel may also be more vulnerable to phishing and malspam that claims to be related to Covid-19, so ongoing refresher training in cybersecurity principles is essential.
Unsurprisingly, organizations that had already invested in cybersecurity and actively hired cybersecurity personnel, were in the best position to manage security issues arising from the Covid-19 crisis. Other companies may have no choice but to make these investments in the immediate future.
Increase in Demand for Cybersecurity Experts
In 2018, nearly a quarter of a million more people were employed in cybersecurity than in 2010. According to CompTIA projections, made back in 2019, system analyst and consultant positions were set to rise by another 20% by 2026, while database analyst and administrator jobs were predicted to rise by another 26%. If you compare this to the national benchmark of just 10%, you can see just how desirable cybersecurity qualifications can be.
How This Affects You
A career in cybersecurity has never looked so attractive. As an IT professional, there’s never been a better time to hone your skills in security and analysis, but you don’t have to possess an IT background in order to become a cybersecurity expert.
If you can boast relevant soft skills such as good communication, critical thinking, problem solving, and motivation, then you’re also in possession of a solid starting base on which to build a new career cybersecurity.
How This Affects Your Company
It’s important that your company’s systems and data remain protected, but it may not be possible to bring on a cybersecurity expert for several reasons. For starters, it may not be in your budget reach, or you may have a hiring freeze in place, so why not upskill one of your existing members of staff?
Not only will you be helping one lucky employee by investing in their career, but you’ll also benefit from all of your employee’s prior knowledge of the business, processes, and goals, massively reducing their onboarding period.
Gain Cybersecurity Skills
There are plenty of cyber security courses you can choose from, but the CompTIA security+ certification in particular, will help to prepare you to analyse and identify threats, vulnerabilities, and risks within an organization.
CompTIA security+ training will also allow you to configure and use threat detection tools, as well as how to secure and protect a company’s applications and systems, providing you with all the qualities needed to become a highly sought-after asset in the workplace.
With Technoedge, you’re able to complete a CompTIA cysa+ certification online, in under one week, with free class retakes for up to a year if needed. It’s a practical course that includes scenario-style applications and comes complete with an online boot camp, study kits, and exam pass guarantee.
Secure Your Future in Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity jobs have always been in high demand, with demand outweighing supply by around four million globally. While the pandemic has caused many people to lose their jobs, the increase in cyber attacks and number of people working from home has meant that cybersecurity jobs are in higher demand than ever before.
Enroll in a CompTIA cysa+training course today and leave your future career worries behind, as you take your first step into a new financially lucrative career that is as rewarding as it is challenging.