Hungry for Talent – Surviving the Coming Security Talent Famine of 2013
Part 7: Focus on Training Along the Way

This series will explore five tips and one bonus tip for acquiring security talent in a landscape that currently has unquenchable demand and not even close to enough supply. So should you just shut down your security effort until the tide turns and you can find what you need? Your Board will buy into that won’t they? Yeah right! So what do you do? Glad you asked.

This article will explore practical tips for getting fat on security talent during this brutal situation; a famine that is bound to continue for at least the next two years.

Bonus Tip #6: Focus on training along the way

Chances are good that while you figure all this out, there are going to be gaps in terms of where your team can become engaged. This will present itself in terms of not being able to spend enough time with management, with operational teams, and or on projects.

Though being able to have a security analyst on every project to ensure secure practices is optimal, it is not always practical or feasible considering our famine. The next best thing you can do, due to its low cost but strong affectivity, is to implement a strong security training program for non-security resources. Though not a perfect state, this can serve as both a stop-gap, as well as will increase adoption and chance for success when you do find resources.

In conclusion, I hope we have provided a few ideas, six to be exact, for you to manage this famine into this new year and beyond. I think that many organizations will figuratively perish along the way, but for those that plan and execute, this situation creates a tremendous opportunity.

As always, please provide your feedback to Mike.Gentile@cisoshare.com or @MikeGentile03 on Twitter; I always read them.