Anatomy of the Information Security Workforce

Survey results indicate that the information security workforce, one of the fastest growing subgroups in IT, is a unique professional niche with distinctive task responsibilities, job market conditions, and training needs. A recent IT job projection report named 30 IT job titles that have an average salary ranging in the six figures.1 Among these, six are security-related titles, including chief security officer (US$150,000), data security analyst (US$104,000), systems security administrator (US$103,500), network security administrator (US$103,000), senior/entry-level IT auditor (US$114,750/US$102,750), and business continuity analyst (US$100,250). Why are these jobs suddenly grabbing the eyes and ears of recruiters, managers, and prospective IT professionals? What are this profession’s distinctive characteristics? Although much prior research has focused on the IT workforce, researchers have hardly explored the cybersecurity subset of IT. To address this gap, we conducted a research study to understand the information security workforce’s unique characteristics and environment. Our research found that this particular workforce requires a distinctive skill set and thus should be considered separately from the general IT workforce. Our work explores issues such as tasks specific to information security professionals, job-market conditions, and necessary training. This article also provides an in-depth understanding o