'There is no cyber security skills gap' - The Economist's head of infosecurity

Vicki Gavin believes that there must be 'a lot of really bad recruiters out there'

There is no cyber security skills gap, according to the head of business continuity and information security at The Economist, Vicki Gavin.

A National Audit Office (NAO) report earlier this year said that it could take 20 years to address the current cyber security skills gap, while analysts Frost & Sullivan found that the number of security professionals globally is about 2.25 million while the requirement by 2015 is 4.25 million.

But despite this, Gavin believes that there is no skills gap, and rather that there is a problem with organisations' recruitment processes.

"I think that there are a lot of really bad recruiters out there, because I have got a fantastic team and I have never had any problems finding high-quality skilled staff, and I don't pay more than the rest of the people on the street - in fact I probably pay less," she said.

Gavin claimed that employers are determined to find someone out there with "enough experience to sink a ship".

"They completely forget that all of these hard skills out there can be learnt, and that there are hundreds of thousands of people out there with the right soft skills, ready and willing to learn," she said.

This, she said, extends to the technical expertise as well.

"Have you met a security person yet that didn't learn it? This is not a skill that somebody is born with," Gavin stated.

This is partly why The Economist hires interns for its information security team.

"I'm an advocate for hiring young people and giving people their first chance, and I find that those individuals bring so much to my team in terms of energy, enthusiasm and new ideas - I'm paid back double and triple for the investment I make in them," she said.

"I've been hiring interns for four years now, and they've all gone on to great things, but while they have been with me they've been absolutely fantastic and a huge benefit to my team," she added.

Gavin manages a team of three: an information security manager and analyst based in New York and an intern based in The Economist's London offices.

Computing and QA Training's Securing Talent campaign aims to raise awareness of the growing need for people with cyber security skills in industry and government, and for clearer pathways into the cyber security profession.