Cybersecurity teams need new skills even as they struggle to manage legacy systems>
ZD Net – Eileen Yu
The article discusses the challenges faced by cybersecurity teams, particularly in Asia-Pacific, due to the growing adoption of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
It highlights the widening cybersecurity workforce gap and the substantial need for additional skills to adequately secure digital assets.
The key points can be summarized as follows:
1\) **Cybersecurity Workforce Gap**:
– The Asia-Pacific region is experiencing a record-high cybersecurity workforce gap, with a need for an additional 2\)67 million professionals to secure digital assets adequately.
– Globally, the gap in the cybersecurity workforce is almost 4 million professionals, pointing to a need for a significant increase in the number of cybersecurity professionals.
2\) **Challenges and Skills Gap**:
– There is a shortage of cybersecurity talent, and organizations are grappling with challenges in hiring enough cybersecurity professionals.
– The report indicates that companies lack skills in areas including cloud security, penetration testing, and zero trust implementation.
3\) **Demand for AI**:
– The adoption of AI continues to grow, influencing the need for cloud computing, and the requirement for cybersecurity professionals to understand AI integration and secure AI-driven applications and workflows.
4\) **Emergence of Generative AI**:
– The emergence of generative AI, such as ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion, has enabled attackers to enhance phishing emails and create more convincing malware.
5\) **Need for Technical Skillsets**:
– Security teams need to understand how generative AI prompts function and should include prompt-driven engagements in their assessments, addressing potential malware creation and ethical risks.
6\) **Challenges in Legacy Systems**:
– Organizations are struggling with legacy systems, which increases the burden on cybersecurity teams as they have to protect both old and new toolsets.
7\) **Cybersecurity Risk and Attack Surface**:
– The growing attack surface is exacerbated by IoT, cloud computing adoption, and the emergence of new AI-driven attacks.
Legacy defense capabilities could prove disastrous in the face of modern AI-driven attacks.
8\) **Importance of Monitoring and Management**:
– Organizations need to monitor and manage modern and legacy systems effectively, understanding the potential impact of modern technologies on the attack surface.
Overall, the article underlines the critical need for cybersecurity professionals to acquire additional skills, address the challenges posed by generative AI, and effectively manage modern and legacy systems to secure organizational assets effectively.
Link: https://www.zdnet.com/article/cybersecurity-teams-need-new-skills-even-as-they-struggle-to-manage-legacy-systems/