Most Don’t Sense A Skills Gap

Most solution providers have the skills they need to address their current security-related work, CompTIA found, with 62 percent of the large providers (at least 50 employees), compared with just 54 percent of smaller firms. Just 4 percent of companies surveyed citing having “major” skills gaps.

How do solution providers close these gaps? The most popular approach – especially among the smaller providers -- is training, with 85 percent of the smaller firms employing that strategy to build skills, the survey found. Another option? Partnering with other providers.

But what about just hiring more people? That’s popular with 60 percent of mid-sized providers, but only 30 percent of large and 40 percent of small providers.

While CompTIA cited federal data showing a 48-percent jump in job postings last year under the category “Information Security Analysts,” there is an inadequate supply of specialists to meet the demand, it said.