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How to Overcome the Cyber Skills Gap with Managed IT Security Services

Security threats are multiplying and mutating at a frenetic pace. Workloads are being increasingly deployed across public and private clouds to meet digital transformation initiatives. And the demand for cybersecurity professionals continues to outpace them both, putting organizations at risk.

According to the 2021 (ISC)2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study, the global cybersecurity workforce would need to grow 65% to effectively defend their organizations’ critical assets.

But in this highly competitive job market, 76% of cybersecurity professionals say that it’s extremely or somewhat difficult to recruit and hire IT security professionals, says ESG.

At the same time, even the most proficient IT security professionals must stay two steps ahead of evolving security technologies and mutating threats. In fact, ESG reports that 91% of cybersecurity professionals believe that they must keep up with their skills or their organizations are at a significant disadvantage. But there’s a conundrum. Given the demands of their jobs, 59% say it’s hard to keep up with the cybersecurity skills they need.

The challenge is even more egregious when you consider that the pipeline for college graduates proficient in cybersecurity is alarmingly lacking. Employers often expect colleges and universities to fill it up, but university curricula can’t possibly keep up with the latest threats and or even the latest technologies.

So if the workforce lacks the required cybersecurity skills and a competitive market makes acquiring those skills difficult at best, how can your organization gain the needed expertise without busting your budget, skimping on skills, or worse, sacrificing your security?

4 ways to acquire needed cybersecurity talent on your own

Many organizations find that their employees either lack the required skills or their current skills cannot meet the needs of the business. In fact, according to ESG, 59% of cybersecurity professionals said that their organizations could be doing more to address the cybersecurity skills shortage. Here are four ways to improve your success in gaining needed cybersecurity talent.

  1. Align compensation with demand: According to an Infosec Institute report, hiring managers have fewer challenges finding qualified candidates but are challenged to meet their compensation requirements. Consider assessing your organization’s market competitiveness to ensure compensation aligns with demand.
  2. Develop successful job descriptions: The Infosec Institute reports that 67% of successful hiring managers more often have well-defined cybersecurity roles. To increase hiring and recruiting success, define and refine roles and position descriptions using the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) This framework provides hiring managers and HR leaders with a common language that they can use to assess their cybersecurity workforce, identify critical staffing gaps, and improve position descriptions and recruitment.
  3. Convert existing knowledge into a competency: Upskilling or reskilling existing employees takes valuable time and resources but may be more cost-effective than undergoing more costly recruitment efforts. The caveat here is that investing in training isn’t a one-and-done thing. It requires continuous investment to ensure your team has the advanced skills and latest industry best practices to best protect your business.
  4. Develop an internship program: A recent CompTIA study found that 87% of business and IT leaders agreed that “colleges are not sufficiently preparing students for today’s jobs”—and cybersecurity ranked at or near the top of the list. So consider building a world-class internship program to give college students or graduates real-world experience before entrusting them with securing your data. This on-the-job training requires a significant time investment, both in terms of building a solid program and then mentoring interns. But you’ll be rewarded with talent trained to your specific requirements.  

But what if you’re short on time and resources and need top-notch IT security professionals on the ground fast? Or you want to re-focus your IT team on driving business-critical strategic initiatives? Consider partnering with an IT managed security services provider and solutions reseller like Logicalis.

Logicalis: Your Cisco and Microsoft IT managed security services partner and solutions reseller

With Logicalis, you won’t need to spend time trying to find costly security talent (or the budget to hire them), re-cast job descriptions and roles, or upskill/reskill existing employees. Logicalis has already done that work—and more—so your team can focus on driving business for your organization!

Logicalis continues to invest heavily in people, processes, and technologies to help our customers battle the latest cyberthreats and reduce business risk. For example, our Security Operations Center is a global center of excellence that enables us to mitigate risk for our customers’ businesses 24x7x365.

And as a Microsoft Gold Partner, Microsoft Azure Expert Managed Services Provider and an IT solutions reseller, capable of delivering IT managed security services, Logicalis recently achieved these Microsoft Azure advanced security specializations:

  • Identity and Access Management (IAM)
  • Threat Protection
  • Information Protection and Governance
  • Cloud Security

Logicalis is also one of just 5 Cisco Global Gold partners, as well as a solutions reseller, Cloud Managed Security provider, and an IT Managed Security services provider. In addition, Logicalis holds both a Master Security Specialization and an Advanced Security Architecture Specialization from Cisco.

This unique combination of security expertise and partnership enables Logicalis to shift from a more traditional, risk-based approach to an approach that powers your digital workplace with IT managed security services—an offering we call Secure OnMesh.

Built on Logicalis’ IT managed services expertise, Secure OnMesh is powered by our global Security Operations Center and our team of advanced security experts. It combines the cloud-native, AI-enabled threat hunting capabilities of Microsoft Azure Sentinel with the power of Cisco SecureX to transform your organization’s security into a flexible, yet impenetrable, fabric across your entire digital ecosystem.

Finally, Logicalis recently joined the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA), an ecosystem of independent software vendors and managed security service providers—experts from across the cybersecurity industry—with the shared goal of improving our customers’ security.

To learn more about Secure OnMesh, download the datasheet. Or contact us.