| | March 20188CIOReviewhe cyber threats in our world are constantly evolving. As a result, it is only anticipated that the skill requirements of cy-bersecurity specialists will evolve accordingly. According to a survey, in 2017, 55 percent of enterprises surveyed required three months or more to fill vacancies in cybersecurity posi-tions and 37 percent reported that less than 1 in 4 candidates possessed the qualifications required. It is moot to say that building and maintaining a capable cybersecurity team today is a tremendous challenge. A report from Frost & Sullivan and (ISC)2 discovered that the global cy-bersecurity workforce will have more than 1.5 million vacancies by the year 2020. At the same time, the cybersecurity industry is a fast-growing market, with IDC forecasting it growing to a USD 101 billion opportunity by 2020. So, we must ask ourselves, how do we reconcile this talent shortage? The answer may lie in upskilling.The foremost advantage of upskilling is that it can be adjusted to suit the most relevant skills an organization requires or prefers. Added to that, is the sense of gratitude or loyalty that the trained individuals harbor towards the organization. The organization is thus seen to be earnestly thinking and working towards the employees' career growth. The intuitive conclusion that TIN MY OPINIONUPSKILLING FOR A CYBER-SECURE WORLD By Ravikumar Sreedharan, Managing Director, Unisys India and Head of Global Delivery Network, Unisys follows is that employees see them-selves as a true asset to the organiza-tion. However, there is a flipside to upskilling employees as perceived by an organization.Upskilling as a Prisoner's DilemmaThe challenge in upskilling existing employees is that organizations risk sinking investment into a resource that can soon leave or be lured away to a more lucrative opportu-nity. As a result, organizations are hopeful that individual employees will nurture their skills without ac-tually making investments directly towards their development. A solu-tion that some organizations have found to this dilemma is the golden handcuff method. For instance, a law firm may pay the university fees for an employee to get a law degree with the stipulation that the clerk remains with the law firm for speci-fied number of years after gradua-tion. This can be a potential route to maintain technical staff and close the skills gap we see in digital and security disciplines.The impending deficit of cy-bersecurity professionals combined with high attrition rates can render organizations unable to acquire and retain the requisite expertise to re-spond to a constantly evolving threat environment. The growing risks presented by cyber-attacks trans-late into the fact that organizations
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