Demand for security, cloud skills getting hotter

LONDON, UK: Phil Sheridan, Managing Director, Robert Half Technology says: "Looking towards 2013, CIOs are charged with juggling multiple priorities, with regulation, integration and migration projects putting additional pressure on busy IT departments. But the risks of not migrating to the cloud, notably the achievement of significant cost reductions, may outweigh the potential security risks that concern IT executives. Budgets continue to be stretched and any potential cost savings that IT can deliver will be welcomed throughout the business.

"We anticipate significant demand for both permanent and contract technology professionals with IT security, infrastructure project management and data migration skills in 2013. While cloud migration may provide cost savings in data storage and warehousing, companies still need the requisite talent to implement and manage cloud initiatives, ensuring that IT security remains a priority."

Cybersecurity tops CIO's concerns, with 84 per cent of CIOs stating that they are either concerned or very concerned about the risks associated with IT security breaches.

Yet while security issues remain the biggest concern that CIOs have about migrating their technology functions to the cloud, less than half (45 per cent) test cloud vendors' security systems and procedures.

The news follows a report by the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF), which found that the rate of adoption by UK organisations is accelerating. Its study of 250 IT directors in private and public sector organisations found that 61 per cent of companies are using a cloud-based service, compared with just 48 per centin 2011.

Other measures adopted by CIOs to tackle the cybersecurity risk include improving physical security (44 per cent), developing business continuity processes (39 per cent), identifying management systems (34 per cent) and relying on an external audit provider (13 per cent). Surprisingly, more than one-in-10 (11 per cent) of CIOs said that they not taking any proactive action to address cybersecurity, while 12 per cent said that they were ‘not concerned' about cybersecurity.

 

Ryan Rubin, UK Director of risk consultancy Protiviti, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Robert Half, said: "These statistics indicate that either there is an inherent trust in cloud service providers; that they have good security governance in place or there is a lack of visibility of potential risks associated with using them. However, there is also a potential risk that CIOs are not always involved in the overall business making decision to procure cloud services - limiting their ability to carry out effective due diligence before these services are adopted.

"Since an increasingly higher percentage of IT security breaches involve third parties, gaining assurance from cloud providers is critical to managing information security risk. Whilst companies may migrate IT towards cloud providers in an attempt to reduce costs, they cannot outsource their information security risks. Unless adequately managed, the cost of security breaches - either regulatory and or legal - may outweigh the perceived benefits of moving into the cloud."