Good news for information security professionals: Expect salaries
to increase by an average of 4.5 percent in 2012. Pay for chief
security officers, meanwhile, is expected to increase by 3.9
percent.
Those predictions come by way of staffing agency Robert Half
Technology, which last week released its 2012 Salary Guide, which
details technology industry salary and hiring trends.
The report predicts that for 2012, many security jobs will be in
high demand, especially for midlevel and senior roles. "Data
security and protection, especially in industries such as banking
and healthcare, will continue to be an in-demand area within
technology," according to the report. "In fact, 24 percent of CIOs
polled by our firm cited security as their top professional
concern."
While demand is high, however, supply is a different matter.
Indeed, Robert Half Technology said it expects to see "an abundance
of positions and a shortage of skilled candidates."
When it comes to hot security jobs for 2012, Robert Half Technology
singled out the role of data security analyst. It estimates that
the base compensation for the job, which involves analyzing
security risks and detailing proposed solutions, will increase by 6
percent, netting base compensation of between USD 89,000
and USD 121,500--based on experience, sector, and the job's
geographic location. For the role, "a professional certification
such as the Certified Information Systems Security Professional
(CISSP) designation also is a valuable asset," according to the
report.
Outside of security, other jobs with higher-than-average
anticipated salary increases include mobile application developers
(9.1 percent), data warehouse analysts (6.7 percent), user
experience designers (6.2 percent), search engine optimization
specialists (6 percent), network engineers (5.8 percent), and Web
developers (5.4 percent). "A common feature of high-demand jobs is
a large degree of specialization," said John Reed, executive
director of Robert Half Technology, in a statement.
Back on the security-job front, meanwhile, expect to see these
average pay increases for the following roles: network security
administrator (4.9 percent), systems security administrator (4.6
percent), information systems security manager (4.1 percent), and
the new role of network security engineer (3.8 percent). On the
security certification front, meanwhile, Robert Half Technology
reported demand for CISSP and CompTIA Security+ certifications,
especially for the role of information systems security
manager.
According to a recent, global survey of 10,500 IT professionals
conducted by the International Information Systems Security
Certification Consortium, aka (ISC)2--which maintains the CISSP
certification--demand for information security professionals is set
to double by 2015. But surveyed IT professionals likewise
anticipate that sufficient numbers of qualified personnel won't be
available to meet that demand.
"The survey expresses what security professionals think they
need--not necessarily what they will get in these austere times,"
said Hord Tipton, executive director of (ISC)2, in an interview.
Furthermore, by 2015 he expects that demand may have increased even
further, due to the increasing number of data breaches and online
attacks affecting businesses.
Interestingly, Tipton highlighted different "top hot security jobs"
than the Robert Half Technology report. "Without question the top
jobs will be in application security. Coupled with the rapid growth
of mobile devices and ... their apps, qualified people with the
right skills will come at a premium," he said.
Likewise, the growth of cloud computing has increased the demand
for people who can secure large cloud environments as well as
virtualized environments. Tipton also predicted that demand would
soon increase for people who could manage "privileged identity
management."
Despite the increased demand for those specialized information
security roles, "our greatest need is for enough people to properly
administer enterprise security," he said.
According to Tipton, "92 percent of last year's breaches could
have been avoided through implementation of basic security
controls. The demand for professionals with broad knowledge,
experience, and a specific technical specialty [or specialties]
will surely increase."
Source:
InformationWeek USA