Cybersecurity skills shortage continues to impact organizations across Asia amid rising occurrences of security breaches and subsequent loss of money. This was the highlight of the global 2022 Cybersecurity Skills Gap Report recently released by Fortinet, a global brand of broad, integrated, and automated cybersecurity solutions.
The report also revealed that skills gap is still a top issue for C-level executives and is becoming a board-level priority. It also suggested ways to address the skills gap problem, including training and certifications to raise employees’ education. The study polled IT and cybersecurity decision-makers in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
Cybersecurity skills shortage
A separate study by (ISC)2 in 2021 found that Asia-Pacific has the biggest regional workforce gap (1.42 million). This comes as costs of cybsersecurity breaches continue to hit corporate profits and reputations, prompting boards to prioritize the issue.
Across Asia, 89% of companies have board of directors asking specific questions about cybersecurity. About 79% of the firms have board of directors recommending higher IT and cybersecuriy headcount.
Training and certifications
Back to Fortinet’s skills gap report, the company points at training and certifications to address the skills gap issue across organizations. The study found that up to 97% of corporate leaders think tech-focused certifications could positively impact their roles and teams, while 86% intend to hire people with certifications. About 89% say they are willing to shoulder additional costs to make employees certified.
Thus, about 93% of the surveyed organizations have already implemented trainings to raise cyber awareness in the workplace. About 51% of the leaders think their workforce still lacks the necessary knowledge, leading to questions about the effectiveness of their present security awareness programs.
Fortinet is highlighting its security awareness training, the Security Awareness and Training service via the Fortinet Training Institute. The service aims to protect companies’ critical digital assets from cyber threats. It also provides updates from Fortinet’s own FortiGuard Labs threat intelligence to help employees learn and keep up with the latest methods to prevent company breaches and cyber risks.
Addressing skills gap
Fortinet has pledged to train up to 1 million professionals by 2026 as it continues to commit to addressing the skills gap through its Training Advancement Agenda (TAA) and Training Institute programs. So far, the program has issued 840,000 certifications since its inception.
“As more organizations adopt technology such as cloud and automation, the issue of a lack of cybersecurity experts has been exacerbated,” said Rashish Pandey, Vice President of Marketing and Communications Asia at Fortinet during the kick-off of Fortinet Accelerate Asia 2022 in the Philippines on May 31, 2022. The same roadshow also launched in other countries across the region.
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