Could we see an influx of cyber security job roles in 2016?

2015 was a significant year for IT and paved the way for many important achievements and innovations in technology.

However, last year also saw an unprecedented increase in cyber attacks which has caused many companies and organisations to re-evaluate their cyber security strategy to prevent themselves from being a potential target.

From TalkTalk to Carphone Warehouse, 2015 saw many large companies have their online security breached and personal data of millions compromised by hackers. Talktalk in particular had already had it's third big cyber attack that year after being hit by a two-pronged attack that targeted customer's personal data. According to Symantec, about one million new malicious programs are created every day which are used against large companies who deal with cyber-attacks on a regular basis.

Despite many companies and organisations already using a variety of different cyber-defence security systems to protect themselves and important data from attacks, it's sometimes not enough and it's even possible for a single employee to open up an infected email and expose the network to hackers and cyber criminals.

With the number of data breaches increasing in recent years, the demand for roles in cyber security are expected to rise heavily in numbers. In fact, the cyber security industry is predicted to see an increase of 1 million job openings in the new year according to a report from Cisco. However, many industry experts are concerned of the shortage of cyber security experts which is struggling to keep up with the overwhelming demand. Even if companies have the budget to hire contractors, there's so much a security team can do, according to Tom Kellermann of Trend Micro, who also stated that the number of job openings appear to outweigh the talent currently available.

“You need people who know the technology but can also speak the language of the boardroom and translate tech talk into understanding for the C-suite," said Mark Brown, executive director of cyber security at EY.

Michael Brown, CEO of Symantec also stated that the demand for cyber security is expected to rise globally to 6 million by 2019, with a projected shortage of 1.5 million.

The likelihood of 2016 seeing further cyber-attacks on large companies is predicted which is the reason behind the demand for cyber security experts. HSBC has already experienced online outage with many customers unable to access their bank accounts but whether this is related to cyber crime still remains to be seen despite already being described as an IT glitch.