Cybersecurity is a hard hire. It’s also your most important one this year. But… it may not be a “hire” at all.
In 2021, Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) and Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) surveyed 489 cybersecurity professionals about their work. 95% of respondents claimed that the cybersecurity skills shortage and its impact have not improved over the past few years. The organization cites that “the cybersecurity profession is systemically undervalued,” meaning that among companies like yours, there’s a chronic underestimation of just how important cybersecurity is. Guess what: it’s extremely important, especially now.
Companies are scrambling to hire, and to be honest… it’s useless.
Cybersecurity professionals are extremely skilled professionals who deserve, and rightfully expect, fair compensation, training, and communication with other departments including HR and legal. To make their work effective, they need the proper (expensive) technology to work with, and a team to deploy it. Even if you could afford all of that, you’re still probably not going to find a good hire. And, you need to hire more than one of those resources.
The pool is small as it is, and with big corporations smacking the smaller ones down with flashy benefits, awesome office amenities, big salaries, creative opportunities and job mobility, and gigantic salaries? To put it plainly, friend, it’s not only a small pool, but it’s also not your pool to swim in, and the deep end runs awfully deep.
Take Google for example. With top-of-the-line benefits, an 80/20 work to creative time split, and nap pods on the line, I don’t think a cramped cubicle and 5 digit salary will woo the best of the best into joining your team. Cybersecurity experts have their pick of top companies with the same types of amenities, and small to medium-sized companies just can’t keep up.
I want to present you with a “choose your own adventure” of sorts. Either you hire a cybersecurity team, or you outsource. Let’s see how these options play out.
The Hiring Route (and Why It’s A Bust)
So, you pay a person – actually, more like “people” – six figures a year to come in and prevent cyberattacks, and then you pay astronomical prices for licenses to the software they need, then you pay more for teams to run the actual technology. If that fails, you pay a sleazeball open source hacker 7 figures later, when the damage to brand equity, the ding in consumer trust, and the revelation of company secrets and sensitive data are already done.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want to give the guy holding my business hostage the satisfaction of a big check or Bitcoin transfer. I’d also venture to say most IT departments don’t have pockets deep enough to hire a fully qualified team and equip them properly with expensive tools and worthwhile extras. I mean, come on man… nap pods. Who can compete with that?
So, your hire doesn’t have the proper tools or support in place to fully flex their skill set, and you get hacked anyway, despite having them on board. Or, maybe they grow frustrated for the same reasons, and they’re out the door in less time than it took to find them. Now, you’re at square one, or maybe even worse off than you were before.
The Case for Outsourcing
Instead of wasting hours on finding an employee whose tenure may be flimsy at best, you hire an MSSP through TechChoice. We offer highly specialized cybersecurity consulting, and we can match you with the right MSSP, who employs intelligence, teams, and vCISOs with the experience and expertise to take on the tasks you’d otherwise hire for. You save time and money and gain expert help for far less risk and lower cost. As another alternative to hiring, TechChoice offers SECaaS, allowing you to access expert outsourced cybersecurity services through customized hybrid models.
Okay, so– we’ve covered the basics. Now you know how to attract a great new cybersecurity employee, why you think you need to find one in the first place, and how this may be futile anyway because they could just…leave. There are only so many hours in your day and so much mental bandwidth you can afford to forfeit. Maybe sifting through tons of applications or spending hours just trying to find an applicant isn’t time well spent for you, or maybe you’re feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of starting the search, or maybe you did all of that and the guy you hired still left. That’s where a trusted advisor can help.
You know that the potential problems an unsecured organization can face are devastating. Companies are experiencing extortion, financial loss, diminished brand equity, and downtime as a result of cyberattacks, and these attacks are coming in higher quantities and with worse consequences every day. Securing your business is a top priority for you, and helping you get there is a top priority for us. There’s a better way, and together, we’ll make it work for you. Contact TechChoice to learn more.