What we know:
Hyper connectivity is driving the transformation of our digital economy into an intelligence economy, an environment where 50 billion devices will be connected to the internet by 2020. This phenomenon, referred to as Internet of Things (IoT), is spreading beyond our private and business lives to include critical infrastructures (CIs) such as telecommunications networks, power grids, transportation systems, healthcare, financial services and others. Although this will create significant monetary and productivity gains for our economy, the IoT revolution also renders the governance of such an environment very complex, especially in CIs that are particularly vulnerable to cyber threats and other malicious attacks. Cybercrime already costs the global economy up to $575 billion annually, and this figure can grow exponentially if governments and industries don’t take decisive action to protect critical infrastructures connected via the IoT.
Data breaches across all sectors of the Canadian economy are on the rise, and no business is now fully immune to cyber threats. This a reality that has been demonstrated by many recent events, globally. The resultant trend is that many businesses are now scrambling for skilled talent in this space.
Global Forecast
According to Cybersecurity ventures, Cybercrime is expected to impact the world economy by 6 trillion annually by 2021. At the same time Cybersecurity ventures estimates that there would be 3.5 million job openings worldwide by 2021.
Canada Forecast
By 2023, Canada will see a demand for approximately 40,000-53,000 Cybersecurity practitioners such as certified information system security professionals, security architects, security engineers etc.,
In total there would be over 100,000 Cybersecurity related jobs created including occupations like ethical hacking, virus technician, vulnerability assessor etc.,
Most demanded jobs
This includes workers with the right blend of skills needed to identify security issues, respond to data breeches, ensure safety and reliability of online transactions, and safeguard data transmission, among other factors.
[Source: Research published on The Information and Communications Technology Council, Canada]
