Is India Facing A Cybersecurity Skills Crisis?

When it comes to professionals with cybersecurity skills, the entire world is facing a shortage. However, the shortage in India for such professionals is 9% higher compared to the rest of the world. Many companies advertise for Java developer recruitment and fail to get the right candidates.Similarly, a lot of tech companies have also mentioned the problems they face when they try to hire machine learning engineers or look for a full-stack developerfor hire. Overall, there is an acute shortage of highly skilled professionals in the tech field in India.

1. Is There A Future For Cybersecurity In India?

According to a recent study by NASSCOM, there will be an increase in the demand for cybersecurity professionals by 2023. Almost 1 million skilled professionals will be required in India alone. Now that more and more companies are completely shifting towards online data usage, cybersecurity is becoming all the more important. Therefore, the future for cybersecurity skills is vast, not just in India but around the world. Hence, people who work on increasing their skills in the given field are likely to have good job prospects in the future.

2. Challenges Faced In The Field of Cybersecurity In India

There are various challenges faced in the field of cybersecurity that increases the necessity for having more cybersecurity professionals to help companies deal with these issues. Some of the challenges are listed below:

2.1 Phishing Attacks

Through phishing attacks, hackers try to steal user data, including credit card numbers, login credentials, and much more. In these attacks, confidential data is stolen by an attacker, but they don't block it. They just use it for their own benefits, such as for illegal money transfers or online shopping. Phishing is one of the biggest problems faced in the field of cybersecurity in India because many companies still do not have skilled cybersecurity professionals to enhance their data security.

2.2 Cloud Attacks

Most companies use cloud storage to keep their data secure. However, an attack on this storage would mean a compromise on the entire data security of a company. Therefore, it is very important to have skilled cybersecurity professionals who ensure that all your cloud data is kept secure and safe from cloud attacks.

2.3 IoT Attacks

With the increase in the adoption of IoT devices across the world, the challenges in the field of cybersecurity are also increasing. Attacking IoT devices leads to sensitive user data being compromised. Hence, it is important to safeguard IoT devices because access to them can open you up to malicious attacks.

2.4 Ransomware Attacks

It cannot be disputed that ransomware attacks hurt both individual users and businesses as it makes it challenging for them to access their important data to take care of their day-to-day operations. That said, with the majority of the ransomware attacks, attackers are notoriously known not to release the critical data of individual users and businesses despite the payment.

2.5 Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Attacks

AI and Machine Learning attacks are another huge cybersecurity concern in India. Countless sophisticated attacks might prove challenging to handle because of the immense lack of expertise in the area of cybersecurity in the country.

2.6 Software Vulnerabilities

It is noteworthy that attacks on the unpatched versions of the software are a significant cybersecurity challenge today. Enterprises and businesses have a tendency not to update their software on different devices as the usual mindset is that it is unnecessary. However, it is of paramount importance to update the software of your devices as the older version might have security vulnerabilities that have been fixed in the latest versions by the developers.

2.7 Insider Attacks

It is pertinent to mention here that while most of the challenges in the field of cybersecurity are external for enterprises, many instances of inside jobs might also exist.There might be employees with malicious intents in a company who export or leak confidential data to other individuals or competitors. This can result in huge reputational and financial losses for a particular business. That said, these computer security challenges can be overcome by regular data monitoring and the inbound as well as the outbound network traffic. The risk of insider attacks can be minimized by installing firewall devices through a centralized server for routing data or limiting access to documents according to the job roles in a company.

3. Outdated Hardware

It is noteworthy that not all cybersecurity challenges are based on software attacks. With more and more software developers understanding the risks associated with software vulnerabilities, periodic updates are becoming more regular. That said, these new updates are often not comparable with the device's hardware. This results in outdated hardware, and the hardware in question is simply not advanced to run the latest versions of software. Due to this, devices with an older software version are more susceptible to cyberattacks.

4. How Can Teksands' Lift-Off Program Help?

Our Lift-Off Program can help significantly in this regard as it can assist tech companies in hiring skilled developers faster from the expertly designed bootcamp program directly. Our unique and professional approach to tapping countless non-traditional channels to conduct bootcamp-based skills programs and superior candidate sourcing allows businesses to ensure quicker talent sourcing in several trending skill areas such as ML Engineers, IT Security Analysts, Data Science, Data Engineers, Full Stack Developers, and Cloud/DevOps Engineers on .Net/React/Java/Angular. Get in touch with us to hire skilled and industry-ready cybersecurity professionals from our Lift-Off Program.