5 Ways to Tackle the Cyber Security Skills Gap.

With the ever-evolving threats, companies are advised to invest more in Cyber Security technologies but with the current, global skills gap attributing to the risks, there’s increasing demands for more cooperation between universities, private organisations and government to boost opportunities and encourage more applicants into the field.

But if your organisation is facing a skills shortage today, you can not wait for a talent to emerge in years to come, how can businesses use innovative ways to combat the cyber security skills gap now?

Finding skilled cyber security employees these days is getting harder. Across the globe, 64% of organisations who responded to Fortinet 2022 Skills Gap Report experienced breaches that resulted in loss of revenue, recovery costs stating that skills gaps had a direct attributed to this.

1. Lower the Skill Level

One obvious way to tackle the skills gap is to match the skills that are available to the skills that are required by lowering the skill requirements. Security leaders in many organisations are reducing hiring problems by moving toward automated endpoint detection and response solutions that use machine learning to process vastly more data than human “agents” can.

Look for and invest in tools that provide the functionality you need in a simpler, more intuitive way.

2. Automate

Even the most equipped security teams can be overwhelmed by alerts. Security analysts spend an exorbitant amount of time switching between tools within their tech stack to investigate false positives, enrich data, and gather the context they need to finally take action. Oftentimes, this results in slower response times to threats, opening the window for potential security breaches. With the ever-growing number of security products that teams use, automation can help increase productivity and visibility into your tech stack and security operations. Fine solutions that are aimed at simplifying the security stack without forgoing enterprise capabilities.

3. Internal Cyber Threat Awareness & Education

Education is a powerful weapon that will reduce your SOC’s workload. Increase the conversations in your workplace that concern security, increasing awareness creates more vigilant staff, and more vigilance means less chance of attacks ever getting past your weakest line of defence: People. That, in turn, will help lessen the burden on your SOC or IT security team and help close the cyber security skills gap.

With phishing and spear-phishing campaigns the primary vector of credential theft, consider running
regular phishing awareness and phishing simulation campaigns on your staff to make them aware of just
how convincing phishing attacks can be.

4. Network Visibility

Your cybersecurity skills gap can be related to the complexity of your network. The variety of devices
that connect to your network, whether they be running Windows, Linux, or macOS, whether they
be Desktop, Notebook, mobile or smart “IoT” devices, the greater the attack surface presented to
adversaries, and the more work and in house skills a business will need to monitor and protect them.

The answer to network complexity is network visibility. If you can’t see what devices on your network
are doing, you can’t protect your network against them. Automated AI solutions can help bring visibility
to your network so that you can see who is traversing it and what they are doing. However, make sure
the next-gen AV product you choose has the ability to inspect encrypted traffic, as bad actors are
increasingly operating with SSL certificates and communicating via https. This is still a blind spot for
many next-gen security products.

5. Plan for Tomorrow

Talent pipeline may be a few years away, ensure that you’re building for your cybersecurity needs not only for today but also for tomorrow. You’ll attract better candidates if you can offer an organisation that has industry-leading tools and an enlightened, company-wide approach to managing security.

Using an external consultancy with greater access to skills may be a way for now and in the future. Speak to CWSI to understand how we can support your business with the current skills shortage.

Content originated from SentinelOne.

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