Cybersecurity hiring crisis: Rockstars, anger and the billion dollar problem

Summary: A small talent pool, an inflated wage bubble and high tension in a virulent attack landscape have made cybersecurity's hiring crisis "the billion dollar" problem.

At no time in history has there been a greater need to hire security professionals to protect and defend infrastructures from an inexhaustible onslaught of organized crime, industrial espionage, and nation-state attacks.

A small talent pool, an inflated wage bubble and the high tensions of a virulent attack landscape have made cybersecurity's hiring crisis the "billion dollar" problem.

The tight talent pool poses a multitude of problems for intellectual property, non-compete agreements, and every hacker's never-healing wound: hackers ripping each other off.

Richard Bejtlich, the Chief Security Strategist at FireEye said, "The prevalence of breaches is driving the creation of incident response teams, often from the ground up."

WithCisco's 2014 Annual Security Report projecting a global cybersecurity jobs shortage starting at 500,000 and domestically at least 30,000, the situation has become what James Arlen at Leviathan Security Group calls "literally the billion dollar question."

That's more truth than jest: the current state of infosec's tight talent pool means that its hiring challenges come with inflated price tags -- as well as all the problems that come with this singularly complex and specialized industry's "rockstar syndrome."

Bejtlich notes that in an acute shortage such as this, the top talent "make their own rules."

He cautions, "Do not expect to hire a top person and require them to relocate to your corporate HQ. Corporate culture can also be an obstacle. Top security people expect free to innovate, and do not tolerate bureaucracy."

Leviathan's Arlen says, "The reality of this is that in order to acquire new talent, companies are forced to go hunting and must be ready to put down the biggest pile of compensation." Arlen continued:

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Cybersecurity hiring crisis: Rockstars, anger and the billion dollar problem