Posted on Saturday, November 12th, 2005 at 10:00 am
Certification Magazine
Full-Speed Ahead: The Demand for Security Certification
The number of information security professionals worldwide in 2004 to be 1.3 million, a 14.5 percent increase over 2003. The number of professionals is expected to increase to 2.1 million by 2008 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.7 percent from 2003. Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at a faster CAGR of 18.3 percent during the same period, while the Americas and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) are projected to grow at a 12 percent CAGR and an 11.4 CAGR, respectively.
The demand in recent years for these specific security skill sets and capabilities has outpaced the demand for more generalized IT knowledge, and the population of IT security professionals has grown quickly. In 2004, IT research analyst group IDC conducted the first major study of the global information security workforce, sponsored by the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC)2. IDC analyzed responses from 5,371 full-time information security professionals in more than 80 countries that had purchasing, hiring or management responsibilities, with nearly half employed by organizations with $1 billion or more in annual revenue. The goal of the study was to provide comprehensive, meaningful research data about the information security profession to professionals, corporations, government agencies, academia and others.
The study estimated the number of information security professionals worldwide in 2004 to be 1.3 million, a 14.5 percent increase over 2003. The number of professionals is expected to increase to 2.1 million by 2008 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.7 percent from 2003. Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at a faster CAGR of 18.3 percent during the same period, while the Americas and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) are projected to grow at a 12 percent CAGR and an 11.4 CAGR, respectively.
