Cybersecurity Skills Crisis 2025: Is Your Organization at Risk?

The cybersecurity job market has seen significant growth, especially in the number of unfilled roles.

Cyber leaders such as Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), Chief Security Officers (CSOs), and other security-focused leaders, along with business leaders, are finding a lack of resources and skills is the biggest obstacle  —but the need for cyber resilience constantly growing.

We have covered before how increasing cyber threats, the need to support legacy equipment, and the influx of artificial intelligence are making the role of a CISO harder than ever. No wonder so many are thinking of quitting.

As the numbers below show, the skills shortage is affecting other necessary tasks related to cyber resilience, such as securing legacy technology and combatting cultural resistance to change.

Public organizations are bearing the brunt of the shortage, while high-revenue organizations are faring better, most likely because they have better access to resources to pay talented cybersecurity professionals.

Table of Contents Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. The Impact of Cyber Skills Shortages on Organizations
3. The Resource and Skill Gap Crisis in Cyber Resilience
4. The Bottom Line

Show Full Guide

Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. The Impact of Cyber Skills Shortages on Organizations
3. The Resource and Skill Gap Crisis in Cyber Resilience
Show Full Guide
4. The Bottom Line

The Impact of Cyber Skills Shortages on Organizations

In the World Economic Forum’s Global Cybersecurity Outlook report, both cyber and business leaders agreed that the largest barrier to achieving cyber resilience within their organizations is a gap in resources/skills (38% of business leaders and 32% of cyber leaders).

For cyber leaders, securing legacy technology (29%) and cultural resistance to change (25%) followed close behind. However, business and security leaders were divided on this; only 14% of business leaders agreed with the cyber leaders’ assertion that securing legacy tech was a significant barrier, and only 8% of them agreed that cultural resistance to change was a problem.

It seems that cyber leaders believe that these challenges are linked to the shortage of cyber skills — that they cannot be addressed without the people and skills to address them.

For business leaders, these difficulties are more manageable, most likely because their profession does not involve the day-to-day tasks of designing for cyber resilience.

The Resource and Skill Gap Crisis in Cyber Resilience

When it comes to designing for cyber resilience, 52% of public organizations say the most difficult obstacle is a lack of resources and skills. This is the largest share of all organization kinds, showing that public organizations are the most affected by this issue.

They were followed by medium-revenue organizations (38%) and low-revenue organizations (35%), with a smaller share of high-revenue organizations (22%) experiencing this as a barrier to cyber resilience.

This suggests that high-revenue organizations have the means to pay the high salaries associated with cybersecurity professionals, and probably also better access to skilled professionals to address cyber resilience needs.

The Bottom Line

The shortage in cybersecurity skills means that organizations in almost every industry are looking for candidates to fill open positions. The problem lies in the fact that there aren’t many qualified applicants.

As a result, a huge number of cybersecurity positions remain unfilled, ripe for the picking; ready for you to embark on a journey of obtaining the right education and certifications to pursue these high-paying positions.

So, whether you want to start a career in cybersecurity or advance your current one, your chances of success are high if you study, apply, and strive for the stars.