Cybersecurity jobs now at a premium as India goes digital

Source: The Economic Times
NEW DELHI: India Inc., facing a scarcity of cybersecurity professionals, especially at the leadership level, has increased salaries offered for such roles by 25-35% over the past year.

Hacking and cyberattacks are compelling firms to hire talent at a premium, with compensation packages for top roles at upwards of Rs 2 crore, and in some instances, close to Rs 4 crore, inclusive of variables. In addition, last year’s demonetisation and the government’s push for Digital India have pushed demand for cybersecurity talent.

Given the gravity of the job, top cybersecurity executives are now even reporting to their company boards instead of chief executive officers. Search firms including Hunt Partners and Transearch said the boards of most of their clients have formed committees for cybersecurity in the past year.

“Till 18 months ago, cybersecurity was looked at as managing IT services risk, but now this has reached the company boards as the entire business is dependent on this,” said Atul Gupta, partner and cybersecurity lead for KPMG. Tax and advisory firm KPMG itself has doubled its team to 320 in two years and its leadership team has almost trebled in the same time, Gupta said.

Leadership searches have risen by between 25% and 100% over the past year, according to some search firms. “There is a demand for cybersecurity professionals at the leadership level and also at lower levels. It has shot up in the last one year,” said Korn Ferry India’s managing director Navnit Singh.

He said the annual compensation for cybersecurity heads ranges from Rs 2 crore to Rs 4 crore. “Compensation for top talent in the cybersecurity space is anywhere between Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 4.5 crore,” said Gupta of KPMG.

Korn Ferry closed at least three search mandates for cybersecurity heads in the past six months, Singh said.

“Companies are now vulnerable to cyber attacks and especially with the government’s initiatives like Digital India and demonetisation, almost all companies across all sectors are going digital to some extent,” said Ashok Pamidi, senior director of Nasscom.

Demand for cybersecurity professionals is driven mostly by consulting firms, banks, the government, retail, BFSI companies and IT companies. To ensure a supply pool of cybersecurity specialists, Nasscom has rolled out a curriculum on the subject with 10 specialized courses, said Pamidi.