India has a shortage of 8 lakh cybersecurity professionals, says WEF Cybersecurity Head

The WEF Cybersecurity Head underscored the escalating cyber inequity, noting that large organisations possess the means to invest and enhance their cyber resilience, while more vulnerable entities lack resources. Consequently, a growing number of organisations struggle to maintain a minimum viable level of cyber resilience, experiencing a 30% decline since 2022—a concerning trend, according to Joshi.

He explained several factors contributing to this which include a very complex threat landscape, limited resource investment and the skills that people have.

“A big part of it is technology, people and process and if you don't have adequate people who can help boost that resilience, it's very hard. So that's why we believe that cyber inequity is rather exacerbated and 90% of all executives that we interviewed said that this is an area that needs very urgent action.”

Reiterating the importance of skilled cybersecurity personnel, Joshi asserted when companies look to invest in technologies, they also need to have the right people for it. “If you're able to make sure that technology is secure by design, you have the right fundamentals in place in terms of processes, how are you structuring your policies such that you have adequate mechanisms and safeguards? Also, if you're complying with the requisite regulation, the last link is the one that is the most tricky, it is really the people.”