CyberSeek launched to close Australia’s cyber security talent gap

Australian cyber security services company, CyberCX, and cyber security growth network, AustCyber, together with a consortium of partners including Accenture, Burning Glass Technologies and CompTIA, have announced the Australian launch of CyberSeek, an interactive mapping tool that tracks the state of the Australian cyber security job market in real time and provides data on the talent gap within the sector. The tool was funded through the AustCyber Projects Fund, which is a A$15 million, three-year initiative designed to help the Australian cyber security industry grow and take ideas globally. John Paitaridis, Cyber CX CEO, said, “cyber security workers protect Australia’s most important assets, from critical infrastructure to enterprise intellectual property, through to the personally identifiable information millions of Australians use to access their bank accounts. The dangerous shortage of cyber security workers Australia is facing puts our collective digital privacy and infrastructure at risk. As Australia’s largest cyber security provider, we want to play a leading role in helping build a robust and sustainable skills pipeline to drive the industry into the future.” Data from the CyberSeek platform shows that in the 12 months to September 2020 there were over 14,000 job openings for dedicated and related cyber security roles in Australia, but a talent pool half the size of the national average for employers to recruit from. For every job advertised in a cyber security related field in Australia, there are only six cyber security workers in existence in the labour market. The mass migration to remote working has only fuelled the need for more cyber security talent in Australia, with organisations now facing several additional security risks CyberSeek uses data analysis and aggregation tools developed by Accenture, Burning Glass Technologies and CompTIA to analyse hundreds of millions of job postings and real-life career transitions, providing powerful insights into labour market patterns. The CyberSeek platform was first piloted in the USA by Burning Glass Technologies and CompTIA, where it has revolutionised how the cyber security job market is understood by people at every stage of their career journey.  Based on the National Initiative for Cyber Education – a framework that provides common definitions on cyber roles and workers – the data provides valuable intelligence to policy makers about the supply and demand of cyber security professionals across the country. CyberSeek features include an interactive heatmap of cyber security supply and demand, an interactive career pathway tool which highlights the key transition opportunities between common roles, and a certification and skills guide which calls out the credentials typically required for those roles. For Editorial Inquiries Contact: Editor Kym Bergmann at [email protected] For Advertising Inquiries Contact: Director of Sales Graham Joss at [email protected]