A fairly bogus assessment of the availability of skilled sec persons seeking positions, see this for a better assessment: http://www.tisc2002.com/insight.html">http://www.tisc2002.com/insight.html also posted to: http://sysinfo.com/sec-state.html The State of Systems Security by Ron DuFresne (mailto: dufresneat_private) Pulished in the TISC Insight Newsletter <A HREF = "http://www.tisc2002.com/insight.html">http://www.tisc2002.com/insight.html> Volume 4, Issue 8, May 10th 2002 ... Shortage of Security Professionals? Many blame lax security practices to a critical shortage of security professionals (see <A HREF="http://www.eweek.com/article/0,3658,s=701&a=23973,00.asp">http://www.eweek.com/article/0,3658,s=701&a=23973,00.asp>). However, the numbers of individuals with information security experience seeking employment or enduring extended lay-off situations is considerable. Even prior to the current economic recession, many information security professionals held positions not specifically related to systems nor network security functions. Does demand exceed availability, or this is a convenient way of diverting attention from the fact that security is under-funded and hence understaffed? Even in situations where staffing numbers are adequate, expertise comes into question: tough economic conditions entice organizations to make do with hastily trained staff at hand rather than hire trained and more expensive security professionals. ,,, </quote> There is not dearth of available trained and skilled people, not when recruiters are getting 2,000+ resumes per job posting, there is a dearth of real interest in investing the time and expense in securing assests. Meritt James wrote: > According to a new report by the Information Technology Association of > America, due to the lack of qualified candidates, U.S. companies will > not be able to fill 600,000 IT positions over the next 12 months. Of > course, IT job seekers who consider themselves qualified, not to mention > available, are wondering where all these open jobs are. "I don't believe > there is any dearth of qualified candidates," said one out-of-work > programmer who has submitted more than 200 resumes since April. "I don't > think this economy is going to change any time soon." While ITAA says > that there are 600,000 unfilled jobs, it does not say how many of these > jobs are actively being advertised. Analysts believe many of these jobs > are vacant due to economics rather than a lack of talent – especially > since so much talent seems to be out of work. In its report ITAA says > U.S. hiring managers will be looking to fill more than one million jobs > during the next year. Candidates who are well versed in C++, Oracle, > SQL, Java and Windows NT technologies will see the most demand for their > services. Since these technologies have been around for some time, some > analysts believe that finding qualified candidates shouldn't be a > problem. Of course, ITAA's report has been released in time for Congress > to consider tinkering with the H-1B visa limit, which is set to go back > to 65,000 in 2003. While it does lobby on several tech issues, ITAA > would like to see the visa limit abolished, giving tech companies free > reign over satisfying their talent needs any way they can. > Read more online: Knowledge At Wharton,7/15/02 > > -- > James W. Meritt CISSP, CISA > Booz | Allen | Hamilton > phone: (410) 684-6566 -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ admin & senior security consultant: darkstar.sysinfo.com http://darkstar.sysinfo.com "Cutting the space budget really restores my faith in humanity. It eliminates dreams, goals, and ideals and lets us get straight to the business of hate, debauchery, and self-annihilation." -- Johnny Hart testing, only testing, and damn good at it too! ~~ The good thing about potential is, as long as you do nothing, you'll always have it.
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