Information security experts have been warned that the credit crunch will soon have a significant impact on the security sector, leading to potential job losses and forcing staff into new ways of working.

Nick Coleman, former interim chief executive of the Institute of Information Security Professionals and a former European head of security at IBM, told delegates at the annual ISSE event in Madrid today that chief technology officers are already reporting projects being delayed due to the economic downturn.

“Structural change will happen to the information security market in the next 18 months,” he said.

“Everyone has seen the credit crunch. There is overcapacity in the market in information security – there will be people looking for jobs and there’ll be cost pressures.”

Coleman called on security teams to “step up” to the new challenges they will face as their organisations look to cut costs through measures such as remote working.

“We need to get ready for the credit crunch and as a community we need to galvanise,” he said.

Coleman said that security teams need to work harder to ensure senior executives understand the nature of the security risks facing their organisation.

“We’ve spoken for five years about putting security on the boardroom agenda – now it’s on the agenda but I don’t think we’re talking their language yet,” he said.

“The challenge in responding to [security] incidents is how to get executives to understand what they need to do with our help, in a managed framework.”