cybersecurity reaches an inflection point

Cybersecurity reaches an inflection point

With a focus on Equifax, WannaCry, Uber, and National Security Agency, 2017 has beenan awful year for private information on the web. That’s saying something, considering the election hacking fiasco a year before. Security is top-of-mind for every enterprise, organization, and government in the world, which means resources will be flowing to develop new solutions.

Cybersecurity initiatives can be divided into two categories: Internal and external. Internally, businesses will be focused on building security into their software. DevOps teams should focus on automating security testing into their software development lifecycle. This will help ensure that vulnerabilities are not introduced during development.

Externally, venture capitalists are flooding cybersecurity startups with capital, to the tune of $3.4 Billion in 2016. According to the Crunchbase Unicorn Leaderboard, there are currently 5 cybersecurity startups worth over $1B, and we should see more emerge in 2018.

While funding might not be a problem, a lack of cybersecurity talent is. The Enterprise Security Group conducted a study and found that 45% of organizations say they have a problematic shortage of cybersecurity talent. This shortage has consequences beyond big business. Jon Oltsik of the ESG believes that the cybersecurity skills shortage, “represents an existential threat to our national security.”

Like blockchain and edge computing, cybersecurity represents another green pasture for developers who want their skills to stay in-demand for the foreseeable future. It could also be some of the most important work of our generation.