Cyber Hiring to Surge by 2015

The federal cybersecurity workforce could grow to more than 61,000 employees by 2015, in part due to new demands, such as mobile computing, cloud services and social media, according to a new report.

The federal government-specific results of the 2011 Global Information Security Workforce Study, conducted by (ISC)2 and Frost & Sullivan, indicate that federal information security professionals are being stretched too thin by their work to secure the increasing amount of critical information flowing through government networks. The new demands placed on cyber professionals as a result of the government's push for mobile devices, cloud computing and social media could result in a federal cyber workforce that is 61,299 strong by 2015, the report noted.

The survey of 145 C-level federal executives also found that the most serious challenges facing federal IT departments are application vulnerabilities (73 percent), mobile devices (66 percent), viruses and worm attacks (64 percent), cyber terrorism (58 percent) and internal employees (58 percent).

With demand for cyber professionals so great, government salaries will need to compete with those in the private sector to grab the best and brightest. But the study found that federal salaries are already competitive with the private sector for cyber talent. For example, 57 percent of federal cyber professionals earn $100,000 or more, compared to 42 percent worldwide who earn six-figure salaries.

Hord Tipton, executive director of (ISC)2, said Friday that the salary data gives an indication that the government often likes to hire more senior cyber specialists. For example, the salary data shows that the bulk of federal cyber pros earned $100,000 or more, while only 3 percent made less than $59,999. "We need new people, and we need younger people," he said. "The government needs defined career paths to help find the skills it needs, get them classified, evaluate what those jobs are worth and put good standards in place."

The study also found that certification is far more important to the federal government than it is to other sectors. For example, 63 percent of CIOs and CISOs said security certifications were "very important," compared to 45 percent of worldwide survey respondents. Still, certifications were not the only requirements cited by respondents in hiring federal IT pros; they also cited regulatory requirements, employee competence, company policy and quality of work as major factors in their decisions to hire.