Why Indian firms are struggling to hire cybersecurity experts

Indian companies are struggling to hire cybersecurity professionals owing to a dearth of talent in the market, according to a report in Quartz.

The report quoted an HR expert as saying that the situation is so dire that companies are even willing to pay twice the standard salary for such professionals.

The expert said that a cybersecurity professional with just three years of experience may end up earning Rs 25 lakh a year.

In comparison, the average software engineer takes home Rs 10 lakh a year after spending half a decade in the industry. 

According to the report, India has more than 30,000 vacancies in the cybersecurity sector which includes senior leadership positions, project managers and engineers.

The skills in demand include software development, engineering, analytics, risk auditing, forensics, network security and access management. Companies across sectors such as IT, banking and retail are looking for such professionals.

Earlier this month, security company Symantec said that India ranks third in the list of countries with largest number of cyberattacks and, second, in terms of targeted attacks. 

India was not only a victim of phishing and spam attacks, but complex cyberattacks such as ransomware also showed a spike.

Anil Kumar, co-founder of talent management company Xpheno, told Quartz that while the cybersecurity domain is expected to generate a million jobs in the country by 2025, most of them will be taken up expats because of the lack of homegrown talent.

Kumar also said that cybersecurity professionals need to get advanced training as the landscape is constantly changing. 

The report also said that most consumer-oriented firms are looking to hire more as they are more open to vulnerabilities.