Survey of 3,000 Reveals Top Skills in Demand and Recruitment
Challenges
HONG KONG, March 5 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Defying expectations amid a
global recession, the (ISC)2(R) 2010 Career Impact Survey found
that half of information security professionals surveyed received
salary increases in 2009, while less than five percent of
participants lost their jobs. (ISC)2 ("ISC-squared"), the largest
not-for-profit membership body of certified information security
professionals worldwide with over 71,000 credentials issued to
66,000 members in more than 135 countries, today announced the
results of its second survey tracking the impact of the economic
climate on salaries, hiring outlook, budgets, threats and more.
Nearly 3,000 security professionals, about 320 residing in the
Asia-Pacific (A-P) region, including Japan, participated.
Globally, more than half of the professionals surveyed, 52.8
percent, (51.4 percent in A-P) received salary increases in 2009.
Less than 11 percent (9.8 percent A-P) of respondents saw their
salaries and/or benefits cut, while 4.8 percent (3.5 percent A-P)
were laid off by their employers. Of the 800-plus respondents who
identified themselves as having hiring responsibilities, more than
half, 53.3 percent (68.4 percent in A-P) said they were looking to
hire permanent and/or contract employees in 2010. Of those hiring,
40 percent (53.4 percent in A-P) said they will be hiring three or
more information security professionals this year. These results
indicate that the A-P region has the most promising hiring outlook
for 2010 compared to the Americas and EMEA regions.
Over 85 percent of hiring managers both globally and in A-P said
their biggest hiring challenges were finding candidates with the
right skills and the right level of experience. The hiring managers
surveyed in A-P said that they were looking for candidates with
specific skills in these top five categories: information risk
management; security management practices; auditing; security
architecture and models and telecommunications and network
security.
"The results from our latest Career Impact Survey show that in a
very difficult economic environment, organizations are placing an
even higher value on the work that information security
professionals do, especially in Asia-Pacific economies," said W.
Hord Tipton, CISSP-ISSEP, CAP, CISA, executive director for (ISC)2.
"It's a sign of the private and public sectors' ever-increasing
dependence upon the stability and security of the online world,
providing a plethora of career opportunities for knowledgeable,
qualified, motivated security professionals."
Other findings from the 2010 Career Impact Survey include:
-- About half of the respondents (51.1 percent globally; 51.6
percent in
A-P) saw their information security budgets decrease somewhat
or
significantly in 2009; 36.9 percent globally (46.8 percent in
A-P)
expect no change in their budgets for 2010. This compares to
over
two-thirds (72 percent) of respondents who reported that their
budgets
were reduced in the 2009 survey.
-- Approximately 54 percent (53.9 percent in A-P) of respondents
expect no
personnel reductions or layoffs in 2010; while 20 percent (12.3
percent
in A-P) expect additional layoffs, compared to 40 percent of
respondents from the previous survey in 2009.
-- In A-P, 28 percent of respondents believe the economic downturn
is
causing an increased security risk within their organization;
53.5
percent of whom identified employee misconduct as the most
common
security risk attributed to the economic downturn, compared to
37.7
percent globally. Outside attacks from hackers was identified as
the
second most common risk by 31.3 percent globally and 25.3 percent
in
A-P.
The (ISC)2 2010 Career Impact Survey was conducted from December
2009 to January 2010 with 2,980 respondents from 80 countries to
gain insights into how the economic downturn affected the
profession in 2009 and gauge the 2010 outlook. In A-P, the survey
was conducted with the support of the Australia Information
Security Association, the Data Security Council of India (DSCI),
the Hong Kong Professional Information Security Association, the
Singapore Association of Information Security Professionals and the
Thailand Information Security Association. The most common sectors
represented were government, at 30 percent (13.2 percent in A-P);
information technology, with 28.5 percent (41.6 percent in A-P);
professional services, with 18.2 percent (22.1 percent in A-P);
banking at 11.3 percent (13.2 percent in A-P) and
telecommunications at 9.9 percent (14.5 percent in A-P). The
majority of respondents' organizations had over 1,000 employees.
Ninety-five percent of respondents hold (ISC)2's Certified
Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP(R))
credential.
(ISC)2 conducts research regularly to gain insight on the state of
the information security workforce and offers support for its
certified members seeking employment and career enhancement;
including free resume posting and job alerts on its Career Tools
site ( http://www.isc2.org/careers ).
Employers can post jobs and search resumes for free as well, giving
them a direct line to an audience of qualified information security
professionals.
Aggregate results for the 2010 Career Impact Survey can be found
at: http://tinyurl.com/isc2-2010-Career-Impact-Survey .
About (ISC)2 (R)
(ISC)2 is the largest not-for-profit membership body of certified
information security professionals worldwide, with over 66,000
members in more than 135 countries. Globally recognized as the Gold
Standard, (ISC)2 issues the Certified Information Systems Security
Professional (CISSP(R)) and related concentrations, as well as the
Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional (CSSLP(R)),
Certification and Accreditation Professional (CAP(R)), and Systems
Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP(R)) credentials to qualifying
candidates. (ISC)2's certifications are among the first information
technology credentials to meet the stringent requirements of
ANSI/ISO/IEC Standard 17024, a global benchmark for assessing and
certifying personnel. (ISC)2 also offers education programs and
services based on its CBK(R), a compendium of information security
topics. More information is available at http://www.isc2.org
.
(C) 2010, (ISC)2 Inc. (ISC)2, CISSP, ISSAP, ISSMP, ISSEP, and
CSSLP, CAP, SSCP and CBK are registered marks of (ISC)2, Inc.
Follow (ISC)2 on Twitter ( https://twitter.com/ISC2 ) and
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).
Media Contacts:
Kitty Chung
(ISC)2 Asia-Pacific
Tel: +852-3520-4001
Email: [email protected]
SOURCE (ISC)2