Experts: CT must grow tech security
As cyberattacks surge, data shows state’s workforce not keeping pace
A growing wave of cyberattacks is threatening governments, businesses and everyday residents. Across the globe, there is a critical shortage of skilled professionals to guard against these criminals.
But the situation is especially dire in Connecticut, which has struggled mightily to grow its cybersecurity workforce, data show, alarming public officials and private industry alike.
The state’s cybersecurity workforce increased by only 1 percent between 2015 and 2020, which was the seventh slowest rate in the nation, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By comparison, the ranks of these key professionals more than doubled in a dozen states over that timeframe. Other, more recent data suggests Connecticut’s cybersecurity workforce actually shrunk slightly over the past year.
Peter Denious, president and CEO of the economic development nonprofit AdvanceCT, said the state must do more to grow its cybersecurity and tech workforce.
“Cybersecurity is like an arms race,” he said. “Malicious actors out there are constantly evolving and finding new vulnerabilities. There has to be a matching investment of time and expertise to meet the challenge.”
Indeed, the problem has the attention of Governor Ned Lamont’s office, which has taken steps to try to address the workforce shortage.
Likewise, businesses in Connecticut are increasingly concerned about cybersecurity, Denious said. Many turn to outsourcing options to help shore up defenses. “Connecticut, like many other states, is trying to keep up,” he said.
Globally, cybersecurity experts are in extraordinarily high demand. An analysis from Cyberseek, a public-private partnership that measures cybersecurity workforce shortages in the United States, notes the talent gap is severe in every state besides Maine.
Nationally, the number of
“Cybersecurity is like an arms race.” Peter Denious, president and CEO of the economic development nonprofit AdvanceCT
unfilled cybersecurity jobs is estimated to be 464,000, including 3,800 in Connecticut, according to Cyberseek, which is backed by a subdivision of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The shortage comes as employers across Connecticut are increasingly reporting that sensitive, private information about residents — like Social Security numbers, addresses and medical records — was compromised. Records from the state Attorney General’s office show the number of reported data breaches has climbed by 20% each year over the last three years. And so far in 2021, breaches have affected more than twice as many residents as in 2018.
The records maintained by the AG’s office, which are required by law to be reported, does not distinguish between targeted attacks by criminals and accidental breaches, such as a lost thumb drive or computer with sensitive data stored on it, or mail with
personal information on it inadvertently sent to the wrong address. But the office believes more breaches in recent years are attributable to external threats.
Just this week, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong urged Connecticut residents to take caution after the popular stock trading platform Robinhood reported a breach that exposed the email addresses of 2 million users.
Accurate accounts of the number of attacks targeting citizens and organizations in each state are sparse. Though, one source, the cybersecurity firm PCMatic, singles out Connecticut organizations as having experienced the fourth-highest rate of ransomware attacks, where criminals lock up computers and access to private data and demand payment for their return, since 2016.
The state's utilities must be particularly wary of cyberthreats, given the risk of essential services being cut off to citizens. For example, attackers were able to stop operation of the Colonial Pipeline, which spans most of the country and supplies fuel to millions,
earlier this year.
A committee of utilities and cybersecurity leaders meets and submits a report to the state annually; shortages in personnel are often a topic of concern. In a statement, a spokeswoman for the state Public Utilities Regulatory Authority said its members in Connecticut are facing a limited pool of qualified professionals.
"All companies face this challenge, not just Connecticut's regulated utilities," the spokeswoman said. "Smaller companies have a more difficult time hiring and retaining trained personnel, because they often cannot bring the same resources to bear to compete with hiring or retaining these sought-after employees."
The shortage of cybersecurity workers in Connecticut follows a broader trend of a stagnant tech workforce in the state.
The widely cited annual Cyberstates report from the nonprofit trade association CompTIA places Connecticut in 43rd nationwide this year in the number of tech jobs the state has added, signaling slow growth in the overall tech workforce.
The cybersecurity workforce in Connecticut even decreased in size slightly between 2020 and 2021, according to the CompTIA report. Only five other states saw larger declines than Connecticut. Nationwide, the field grew overall during that period.
The nonprofit projects that nationally, the cybersecurity field will be the fastest-growing among all tech occupations between 2020 and 2030.
Whether Connecticut will see that same job growth in the highpaying field remains to be seen.
Lamont’s administration has made the issue an area of focus.
His office announced on Monday the state would participate in CyberStart America, a nationwide educational initiative geared toward encouraging high school students to explore the field given the “massive shortage of cybersecurity professionals,” according to a press release.
The state-funded technical high school system is also playing a part in graduating students with cybersecurity skills. Don Mason, an educational consultant for the Connecticut Technical Education
and Career System, said roughly 750 students each year choose one of the IT tracks across the network of 17 high schools. Then, some will graduate with specializations in cybersecurity. Mason said the schools are offering adultlevel certifications to students.
Mason said the system often hears from companies in great need of more cybersecurity professionals that are hoping to tap into the talent at the technical high schools.
“We’re working very hard to let kids know about the need,” he said.
Even kids as young as elementary and middle school should be exposed to the idea that working in the IT field could be for them, Mason said.
While many other industries also need high-skill workers, one argument in favor of coming to the tech field, including cybersecurity, is the higher wages: The mean wage for information security experts in Connecticut in 2020 was $103,000, higher than the state average for all types of jobs by $38,000, according to the BLS.