This past month, CEOs, elected leaders and academics from around the globe gathered at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss the world’s most pressing problems including technological change, global trade, education, sustainability, and gender equality.
As in previous years, digital transformation remained a key theme at the event as well as discussions around artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies impacting the workforce. There are two opinions out there about these new technologies when it comes to workforce implications.
The first one is that these technologies will create jobs because there will be a need to hire skillful employees for implementation. The opposing opinion is that it will reduce jobs because robots will replace humans. No matter which opinion you agree with, digital transformation and new technologies will impact the workforce.
WEF released a report this year that focused on reskilling and upskilling the workforce. The report states that the careers of 1.4 million people are expected to be disrupted by technology, and other factors, just in the United States. The report adds that through job retraining and other programs, these workers can all find new jobs.
I think this issue really resonates in the cybersecurity industry. This industry already faces a skills gap, with a prediction that the gap between available, qualified cybersecurity professionals and unfulfilled positions will reach 1.8 million by 2022. Education is one solution to the skills gap, and more colleges are offering degrees and academic programs that cover information security management, privacy in the digital age, cybersecurity policy and governance, risk management, and cryptography.
In today’s world, disruption is the norm and it is imperative for organizations to digitally transform to compete. In order to meet this demand and offer companies a secure path to digital transformation, cybersecurity companies need people with skills like security architecture, secure coding, cryptography, vulnerability assessment, and security certifications.
It is certainly important to hire people that have these skills, but it is just as important to create a company culture that encourages current employees to learn and embrace digital transformation.
Companies are required to transform at a new pace because of technological advances and trends in IoT, artificial intelligence, big data and most recently, cryptocurrency. Investing in a highly skilled, well-trained workforce provides the needed foundation for organizations to protect their most valued assets.
At Thales, we have employees with the skills and deep understanding of these issues, and know how to protect the organizations data to prevent and minimize these vulnerabilities from occurring.
We recently released the results from our 2018 Global Data Threat Report and discovered that 94 percent of respondents are using digital transformation technologies with sensitive data. It is encouraging to see this type of adoption. However, while I encourage companies to embrace the digital transformation to compete, it is equally important to ensure that the right data security controls are in place through this transition.
The rush to embrace digital transformation has created more attack surfaces and new risks for data, and the report revealed that 67 percent of respondents were breached in 2018, with 36 percent breached in the last year.
How can companies continue to innovate and transform while keeping important data secure? Find the right employees with the skillset to implement security measures, like my great team at Thales, and your company can go through their digital transformation journey in a secure way.
For more information on Thales Digital Transformation solutions, please view our website. You can also read more about the cybersecurity skills gap in Alan Kessler’s previous blog post.