> it hasn't turned around in cyber fwiw and it's been growing for probably 2 decades, 1 decade in earnest. Perhaps b/c SWEs are a profit center vs. the security
> cost center, there'll be motivations though. IMO the only thing driving sec eng hiring isn't companies realizing career pipelines are messed up, it's regulations
> or getting hacked in profit-damaging ways, and there aren't a ton of companies in those buckets
I don't know from my observations cybersecurity has only been a thing in the last decade outside any defense industry. Before that it was information security and most operations/network security was done by systems and network administrators[1] with the driver being reliability of services verse any concern about the equipment or data on it.
While the hacks are a driver of the cybersecurity field the biggest driver as with all things is insurance companies and cyber coverage. Insurance companies requiring people to be dedicated on keeping up with vulnerabilities, secure default implementations, data restrictions is what is driving the need and companies just want to fill it to keep their coverage or keep their rates lower. Its the typical idea that if you add more software developers or people to a project it gets done faster, when in reality it doesn't work that way. This is why I think we will see a shift back to a more graduated source of cybersecurity professionals. There wasn't a formal path to being a systems administrator or network administrator compared to Computer Science degree -> developer.
Thanks for the astute discussion. Its much better than the "one" line bot responses that you typically see now.
[1] For all the young kids these jobs were renamed DevOPS, NetOPS, SRE, etc. Previously these responsibilities were just part of operating a network.
Fair call-out. To clarify, I swap what I call the job depending on the audience, but IMO the underlying requirements of the job haven't really changed. A SWE/business audience - call it cybersec. At the security cons in Vegas - call it infosec. Obviously there's skill variations within the security needs of the day (i.e. pure "netsec" isn't around as much anymore vs. "cloudsec"). But, skill shortages have persisted across all these variations of the job IMO.
> insurance companies and cyber coverage.
I've primarily worked in tech or finance, and tbh I don't run into insurance topics a lot although it's of course speculated as a possible growing motivator for the field and related hiring. The issue and "signal" I look for with that changing is when will the Fortune 500-style mass data breach actually turn into (a) uninsurability or (b) massive fines. Neither have happened yet, but IMO this is changing.
In terms of security programs I've joined where there was an incentive to hire, it is always something like this, which is what I mean by regulations or hacks driving hiring in my (anecdotal) experiences:
- Want to IPO, Series C tech startup? Must pass SOC-2, must hire security team.
- Horrible hack or very narrow close call, largely stayed internal -> board/founders gets fired up about cyber risk, and it filters down to hiring out a security team.
While the hacks are a driver of the cybersecurity field the biggest driver as with all things is insurance companies and cyber coverage. Insurance companies requiring people to be dedicated on keeping up with vulnerabilities, secure default implementations, data restrictions is what is driving the need and companies just want to fill it to keep their coverage or keep their rates lower. Its the typical idea that if you add more software developers or people to a project it gets done faster, when in reality it doesn't work that way. This is why I think we will see a shift back to a more graduated source of cybersecurity professionals. There wasn't a formal path to being a systems administrator or network administrator compared to Computer Science degree -> developer.
Thanks for the astute discussion. Its much better than the "one" line bot responses that you typically see now.
[1] For all the young kids these jobs were renamed DevOPS, NetOPS, SRE, etc. Previously these responsibilities were just part of operating a network.