We are inundated with new cyber threats every day, with cyber-crime growing at an alarming rate, but does your business have the defences required to stay protected? Most often, the answer is no.
Businesses of all sizes are facing a critical challenge: the cyber security skills shortage. The increasing gap between supply and demand is leaving businesses vulnerable and potentially exposed to costly cyberattacks.
The Widening Gap: Can Your Business Keep Up?
The UK Government have recently published a report titled ‘Cyber Security Skills in the UK Labour Market’ which paints a concerning picture. According to the report, a staggering 44% of businesses across the UK report having cyber security skills gaps. This means that nearly half of UK businesses lack the expertise in-house to adequately defend their systems.
The report also highlights an increase of 48% in the incident management skills gap. This means that 48% of businesses lack the expertise to effectively respond to a cyberattack should it happen, likely leading to longer recovery times and greater financial losses for the affected business.
These points have been echoed by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which has warned about the widening gap between the sophistication of current cyber threats and the UK’s ability to defend against them. This is a serious threat for businesses of all sizes, as even a single successful cyberattack can have devastating consequences for the attacked business, its customers and its supply chain.
Consequences of Unfilled Security Roles
The lack of cyber security personnel in your business can have devastating consequences for your business, such as:
- Increased vulnerability to cyberattacks: Without skilled professionals monitoring your systems and detecting threats, you may not know you have vulnerable entry points to your network or that you have been attacked until it is too late.
- Potential breaches of compliance regulations. Even without cyber threats, there are compliance regulations for most businesses to uphold to keep in line with strict regulations many industries have around data security. A lack of skilled personnel could mean your IT infrastructure is unintentionally non-compliant.
- Difficulty detecting and responding to security incidents: Even if a breach occurs, a lack of expertise and monitoring can make it difficult to identify and contain the damage.
- Slower recovery times: Recovering from a cyberattack can be a complex and time-consuming process. Without skilled personnel, the process can face further delays.
How CTRL-S Helps Bridge the Skills Gap
At CTRL-S, we believe in the importance of investing in the education of our team. We conduct regular assessments of our team’s knowledge and upskill in up-and-coming areas to ensure we are always at the cutting edge of technology.
We also invest in the future of technology by nurturing talent through a strong apprenticeship culture. Three current apprentices are studying across IT and data courses, and many of our employees have previously completed an apprenticeship. They are rooted in our culture. To find out more, check out our previous article welcoming our most recent apprentice, Marcus.
How CTRL-S Can Help Your Business Bridge the Gap
At CTRL-S, we understand the challenges your business faces and the cost involved in employing a dedicated specialist. That’s why we have a range of pre-built comprehensive cyber security solutions, such as our Cyber Protect packages and Cyber Wise service, as well as a team of skilled experts ready to extend your team with an IT partnership.
Partner with CTRL-S to have unlimited access to
- A team of industry experts: our team of highly skilled professionals with the expertise to handle your security needs, including:
- Security monitoring and threat detection
- Security awareness training and attack simulation
- Cyber Essentials consultancy
- Backup and recovery solutions
- Application monitoring, licensing and patching
- Scalable security solutions: We tailor our solutions to your specific business needs, regardless of the size, ensuring you get the protection you require as your business scales, ensuring you get incredible protection and value.
- Proactive threat hunting: We don’t just wait for attacks to happen. Our team actively monitors for suspicious behaviour, threats and vulnerabilities before they occur.
Take Action Today!
Don’t let a skills shortage leave your business vulnerable. Contact us to discuss your cyber security needs and how we can help.
