Technology Reseller - v21 2019

01732 759725 TECH TRENDS 10 Cyber security pros ‘burnt out and outgunned’ Criminals are winning the cyber skills battle, warns Symantec in a new report produced in collaboration with Goldsmiths University. In a survey of more than 3,000 cyber security decision-makers in France, Germany and the UK, almost half (48%) said their teams were failing to keep up with cyber-criminals. More than one third (38%) of UK respondents said their teams lack the necessary skills to combat the threats they face, with 39% of UK respondents admitting that staff are too busy to keep up with skills development and 37% admitting that technological change is happening too quickly for them and their teams to adapt. Almost all (97%) said there weren’t enough people with the necessary skills to recruit, which is increasing pressure on existing cyber security staff and contributing to burn-out. Nearly two thirds of cyber security professionals say they have considered quitting their jobs (64%) or leaving the industry entirely (63%). Dr. Chris Brauer, Director of Innovation at Goldsmiths, University of London, who directed the research for the High Alert study, said: “Cyber security professionals are locked in a constant arms race with attackers. where talent and skill are the most important weapons. The vast majority find this battle of wits an exciting and deeply intellectual challenge. But this demanding work comes with high stakes and is fought at a frenetic pace with little support. Add to this the relentless volume of alerts and more mundane tasks and the job can quickly turn toxic. Highly stressed workers are far more likely to be disengaged and ultimately quit. In an industry already plagued by a skills shortage, this is a significant risk to businesses.” www.symantec.com The future is bright – if you ignore Brexit As 160,000 mainly elderly Conservative party members hold the fate of the UK in their hands, Brexit is seen as the biggest threat to the future of the IT industry. More than one third (36%) of 1,500 tech professionals surveyed by tech recruitment firm CWJobs said they were concerned about the impact of Brexit on the industry, compared to 28% worried about talent moving abroad or the state of the economy. Despite these reservations, 89% of UK tech professionals believe the industry is in a strong position, due to the UK workforce’s skill set (35%), the development of innovative technology in the UK (34%) and the UK’s status as an IT leader (29%). The greatest cause of optimism for the future is emerging technologies (cited by 36%). More than three quarters (78%) think artificial intelligence (AI) will have a positive impact on the UK tech industry. Almost half (46%) think AI will have a positive impact on jobs, compared to 30% who expect its impact to be negative. www.cwjobs.co.uk Insider... An introductory coffee with one of our new intake of apprentices recently gave me cause for thought. This individual, 18 years old, was eager to learn, enthusiastic and surprisingly mature for their age. It felt great to be providing them an opportunity and their first steps in what I hope will be a long career in the industry. Six years ago, we made the decision to change how we went about recruitment. Rather than constantly taking on people to fill gaps, we decided to try a different approach – to bring on young people, train them up and set them on their way in our company. Today, our youngest apprentice is just seventeen years old – he joined us when he was sixteen. Working in our product management function, he has made massive progress in a short period of time and is already presenting to clients and attending internal and external meetings, ably assisted by more experienced colleagues. Our oldest former apprentice, at 23, is just celebrating five years’ service with the company, which makes me really proud. She goes back into schools now and evangelises about the apprenticeship pathway as an alternative to higher education. This turns a huge flywheel, encouraging young people interested in an apprenticeship to knock on our door first, providing an exceptional pipeline of future talent for our company and for the industry (whilst also saving on recruitment costs). Solving the so-called talent crisis can’t just be a question of paying ever more for the increasingly scarce resource of experienced people put forward by recruitment companies; short-term thinking always comes at a cost. For us, investing in apprenticeships is a mid to long-term solution to the problem. Our target, in line with national guidelines for good practice, is for 5% of our total workforce to be undertaking an apprenticeship. If you’ve not yet taken on apprentices in your business, I’d encourage you to do so. Not only does it change your age demographic, bring new ideas and energy to your culture and provide more senior employees with a focus for sharing and passing on knowledge, it makes you more resilient as an organisation by building your talent pipeline from the bottom up. Having a fresh cohort that buys into your culture and your way of doing things can only be good for your business in the long-term. See you out there. Phil Jones MBE , Managing Director, Brother UK @philjones40 CWJOBS CONFIDENCE INDEX How confidentdoes theUK's tech workforce feelabout its industry? Understand the impactofpatchworkdefences andstartyour journey to reducedcomplexity High Alert: Tackling Cyber Security Overload in 2019 HighAlertSeries NEWTHISMONTH Chapter2:TheSkillsCrisis Clear shift to AI In the last 12 months, more than one third (38%) of companies have enhanced their analytics capability with some form of AI or machine learning. In a Twitter poll of 500 professionals by MHR Analytics, 19% said their company had made ‘significant’ progress in adopting AI, with a further 19% saying they were ‘steadily’ adding the technology to their analytics strategy. MHR Analytics’ SVP Nick Felton said: “We are seeing a clear shift in focus in the way companies operate their analytics, with AI capabilities like NLP (natural language processing), machine learning and conversational analytics becoming a reality. Businesses are well aware of the need to adopt this technology and the advantages it can bring, such as increased efficiency, revenue growth, customer experience and overall reductions in operational costs, not to mention the control and stability it can offer in an unpredictable business climate.” Even so, 62% of firms are still not investing in AI to take them from manual to automated analytics. mhranalytics.com