Outsourcing Cyber Skills

Federal investment in information security could increase to $13.3 billion by 2015, in part because of the shortage of qualified security professionals in government, a new report estimates.

The report, issued Tuesday by government analysis firm Input, predicts information security spending to increase by 2015 at a compound annual growth rate of 9.1 percent, nearly twice the rate of overall federal IT spending. Federal agencies have seen a 78 percent growth in cyber incidents during the past year, Input found, making the demand for information security greater than any other current technology and leaving it more immune to budget cuts.

The primary driver of increased spending is the ongoing shortage of professionals with specialized cybersecurity skills, the report notes. "While agencies continue to make incremental progress toward secure infrastructures, a lack of leadership, ambiguous roles, technical challenges, and workforce shortages inhibit the federal government from developing and implementing a cohesive, well-formed national cyber security strategy," said Angie Petty, a principal analyst at Input.