CYBER SECURITY A GOLD MINE FOR JOBS: IBM

Mumbai, May 13: Global tech major IBM has said there is a massive shortage of cyber security professionals in the country, urging young graduates to look this segment, which is a high- margin segment for companies, as a lucrative career option.

The company, which looks at India both as a market as well as a talent pool to serve the global markets on cyber security, said a whopping 3 million cyber security professionals are required in the country but the supply is not even 1 lakh now, Kartik Shahahni, integrated security leader for IBM India and South Asia, told PTI here.

“Can I find people, yes I can. But can I find enough number of people? There is obviously an opportunity for more number of people than we actually have now,” Ananda K. Vaideeswaran, director and global integrated leader, chipped in.

Mr Shahahni explained that security solutions currently contributes in “double- digit percentages” to IBM India’s revenue at present, whereas its share of the total staff is much smaller.

Stating that the cyber security professionals are “more productive” as it is a margin accretive vertical, he said, “the amount of revenue a security professional can bring to us is far higher than the amount of revenue a non- security professional can.”

The comments come amid rising concerns about the IT sector from a workforce intake perspective. As more and more tasks get automated with the advent of newer technologies, fewer number of people are required by the $ 160- billion domestic IT sector to do the same work compared to the past when the industry was one of the leading job creators.

SHAHAHNI EXPLAINED that security solutions currently contributes in “doubledigit percentages” to IBM India’s revenue