2010-03-05 11:59

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.

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Media Contacts:

Kitty Chung
(ISC)2 Asia-Pacific
Tel: +852-3520-4001
Email: kchung@isc2.org

SOURCE (ISC)2