Cybersecurity talent gap exposed

Regulator urges schools to recruit ‘maverick geniuses’

The cybersecurity talent gap has put many Chinese internet institutes in a tight spot, according to a whitepaper issued on Tuesday, noting that the level of current industry workers is not sophisticated enough.

The whitepaper was published by the China Information Technology Security Evaluation Center, DBAPP Security, a Hangzhou-based internet security company, and Chinese e-recruitment platform liepin. com at a forum during Cyber Security Week in Chengdu, capital of Southwest China’s Sichuan Province since Monday.

The whitepaper shows 38.5 percent of the surveyed institutes said they are in urgent need of cybersecurity talent for analytics and design.

It also reveals that 27.88 percent of institutes need specialists to make rules and strategies to bolster their cybersecurity.

The paper did not say how many companies participated in the survey.

Data shows there were as many as 700,000 unfilled positions in the cybersecurity industry in 2017, National Business Daily reported on Monday.

“Lack of cybersecurity specialists will prevail in China for at least five years,” said Chen Xingshu, head of Sichuan University’s College of Cybersecurity.

The emergence of big data and AI technology makes it harder for cybersecurity workers to keep up with the latest trend, so they have to continue learning, Chen told the Global Times, drawing the analogy that “doctors cannot make prescriptions until they identify the malady.”

What makes things worse is that 62.83 percent who work in this industry do not possess the required national or international certificates, such as Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), the whitepaper said.

Chen urged companies and universities to broaden their standards in recruiting talent.

“Just because they don’t have a satisfactory overall performance doesn’t mean they won’t be an excellent fit.”

She cited that in 2017, 12 out of 13 students enrolled in Sichuan University’s special plan for cybersecurity talent failed to meet the standards of the college entrance examination, but were “chosen for their special skills and enthusiasm in the computer science field.”

In 2017, the Cyberspace Administration of China and Ministry of Education issued a guideline encouraging Chinese universities to increase the recruitment of college graduates in cybersecurity-related majors for graduate studies without the need for entrance examinations.

Moreover, schools are encouraged to run special recruitment for “gifted youth” or “maverick geniuses.”

Four representatives of several universities, including Sichuan University, told the Global Times that they are actively cooperating with Chinese internet companies to give their students more exposure.

“It also gives them a taste of what cyber attacks are like,” Chen said.

Although the annual average salary of cybersecurity employees ranges from 100,000 yuan ($14,590) to 300,000, only 29 percent of those surveyed said they are satisfied with their income, the whitepaper shows.

It also noted that the cybersecurity market is male-dominated, comprising 85.6 percent of the workforce.