If you think it’s hard to hire IT resources, try cybersecurity.
Organizations, including MSPs and MSSPs, are impacted by today’s labour shortages. Cybersecurity job postings are growing three times faster than other openings in the overall IT market, even though cybersecurity accounts for only 13% of all IT jobs.
Finding and hiring cybersecurity staff is challenging. Here’s what you need to know: Find out the key roles you need to fill, common challenges to watch out for, and how to navigate the labour shortage without raising costs.
Key Cybersecurity Staff You Need
Building a cybersecurity team takes time and resources. These are the roles you should prioritise:
- Chief Information Security Officer (CISO): A senior-level professional responsible for developing and maintaining information security and risk management programs
- Security Architect: This role designs robust security structures, performs vulnerability tests, and provides technical assistance to the security team.
- Cybersecurity Engineer: This mid-level position is responsible for planning security measures to protect an organisation’s network and data and prevent cyberattacks.
- Malware Analyst: This professional identifies and examines cyber threats (e.g., viruses, worms, bots, and trojans) to develop malware protection tools and document threats.
- Penetration Tester: This network security consultant (also known an ethical hacker) exploits a system’s vulnerabilities just like hackers would and documents the test results.
- Computer Forensics Analyst: This mid-level role works on cyber attack cases to gather digital evidence and recover deleted, manipulated, or stolen data.
How Much Does it Cost to Staff a Cybersecurity Team?
Here’s the average annual salary in the U.S. for the roles listed above:
- CISO: $167,295
- Security Architect: $127,509
- Cybersecurity Engineer: $97,880
- Malware Analyst: $92,880
- Penetration Tester: $127,509
- Computer Forensics Analyst: $74,798
Use our resource calculator to see how much it’d cost to run your in-house cybersecurity team.
Hiring Cybersecurity Staff: Common Challenges
Hiring cybersecurity professionals in today’s tight labour market is challenging.
Some companies make the mistake of looking for local candidates that fit certain expectations. However, today’s cybersecurity talents don’t necessarily look like their corporate counterparts and may not come from traditional backgrounds or talent pools. Many of them don’t even reside in the same country.
Meanwhile, many employers fall into the trap of overloading these cybersecurity professionals once they’re hired, which triggers a high rate of burnout that leads to retention issues. Many cybersecurity teams lack a comprehensive staffing strategy, leaving them in a reactive mode and causing frustration in their staff.
With the law of supply and demand at work, the salary of cybersecurity professionals has skyrocketed. The cost of running an in-house local team has become daunting, yet more clients expect cybersecurity to be part of a managed IT package—squeezing many MSPs’ profit margins.
At the same time, the rise in salaries has caused more people to get certifications and claim to be cybersecurity experts. It has become harder to separate the wheat from the chaff. Hiring the wrong person is costly and can lead to security incidents that tarnish your reputation and erode client trust.
Overcome Talent Shortages and Rising Costs with Cybersecurity Staff Augmentation
The current challenges of high costs combined with labour shortages will continue. That’s why more MSPs and MSSPs are using staff augmentation services to build their cybersecurity teams.
A reputable staffing agency has access to a large talent pool of vetted professionals to help you fill essential roles quickly. These seasoned experts can get up and running right away while the service provider takes care of onboarding and other HR tasks, so you don’t have to worry about the overhead costs.
In today’s threat environment, omitting cybersecurity in your service offerings is no longer an option. Cybersecurity staff augmentation can help you deliver the best services to attract and retain more clients without breaking the bank.
When MSPs outsource their cybersecurity staffing to RedQor, they achieve an average cost savings of 50% (plus all the hassle!). Use our resource calculator to find out how much it’d cost to run an in-house team, and book a time to talk to see how we can help you maximize cost-effectiveness and profitability.
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