Making Sense of Cyber Executive Search in a Competitive Market

Cybersecurity is irrevocably interwoven into our daily lives as organizations, companies, and individuals have become more dependent on cloud-based systems and data. Subsequently, the demand for talented cybersecurity leaders has continued to escalate to the point where there are more open positions than there are qualified people to fill them. As a result, cyber executive search efforts often take months longer than institutions desire. The gap between supply and demand is so severe that even the federal government has launched a national initiative to increase cybersecurity education and workforce development.

Cyber threats have evolved from simple spam to attackers using everything from printers to smart coffee machines as an entry point into large corporations. As cybercriminals grow more sophisticated, so does the infrastructure and talent needed to defend against them. The global cybersecurity market is a $167 billion industry project to grow another 10% by 2028. Cybersecurity recruiters like Slone Partners Cybersecurity that focus on cyber executive search services for their client partners are seeing unprecedented levels of demand to find and connect talented cybersecurity leaders with organizations that need them.

Because of this new reality, the cyber executive search landscape has become highly specialized and competitive. Companies like Slone Partners Cybersecurity have expanded their networks to meet the needs of client partners who need immediate access to talented cybersecurity leaders who will keep their systems and data safe.

Information security will remain a top priority for organizations in 2022. Cybersecurity experts have noted that ransomware is going to be a serious area of concern given the lucrative attacks throughout 2021 when hackers took advantage of remote employees using personal devices on weakly secured home connections. The lessons learned from the pandemic just reinforce the need for highly proficient cyber executive search endeavors since organizations can lose millions if they don’t keep valuable data and systems secure. Slone Partners Cybersecurity is an experienced and accomplished cyber executive search firm that is well equipped to work with companies in all sectors – from energy to transportation – that need talented cyber leaders.

IoT, the Internet of Things, is also expected to significantly grow in 2022, posing new threats for many organizations. Healthcare, logistics, retail, and numerous other industries expect to see tremendous productivity gains through IoT, as billions of devices connect individuals and organizations. COVID-19 has also caused a large shift to wearables and other non-smartphone IoT devices in the healthcare and education sectors as social distancing became mandatory. However, the shift towards IoT in industrial settings has also massively increased the risk of internal or large-scale breaches. Cyber executive search efforts often focus on filling CISO, CSO, and VP roles that are critical for a company’s cybersecurity operations with respect to IoT and other cyber threats.

The most effective cyber executive search strategies must be uniquely designed to meet the needs of client partners, particularly now at a time of record numbers of enterprise data breaches.

Threats relating to artificial intelligence are also an area of increased interest to both large and small organizations that are relying more and more on machine learning and artificial intelligence to complete repetitive tasks. As a result, there is a growing need for artificial intelligence expertise with the capability of creating and managing augmented workforces, yet another skill set that cyber executive search firms like Slone Partners Cybersecurity must take into account every day in their cyber leadership recruitment efforts.

Organizations are also investing more in composite AI and neuro-symbolic AI that is proving to have fortuitous returns. Hybrid AI is used in network optimization, natural language technologies, image analysis, and other tasks that can be too onerous or repetitive for humans to evaluate, leaving them to take on more strategic roles in the organization and focus on higher-value work. Cyber executive search recruiters like Slone Partners Cybersecurity have noted that there has been an increased demand for technology and cybersecurity executives who are thought leaders in the AI sphere. Most notably, this development has occurred across the professional sector, particularly in law, medicine, and accounting, which has additional consequences for a cyber executive search. These fields have extra layers of compliance, professional knowledge, and risk attached to them which makes the search process extremely challenging.

In 2022 and beyond, user privacy and subsequent regulations are a prevalent issue for cybersecurity teams and corporate leadership and will only become more pressing with time and proposed laws. Gartner predicts that 65% of device users around the world will have their data regulated under privacy laws and recent cyber executive search efforts have demonstrated that complying with existing and expected governance is a top priority when recruiting and hiring cybersecurity leaders.

For organizations that have offices in the European Union, or simply want to do business there, 88% of organizations spend more than $1 million annually to comply with GDPR while 40% spend more than $10 million. Organizations that engage Slone Partners Cybersecurity and other cybersecurity recruiters are often seeking technology governance experts who can keep such compliance costs from spiraling out of control. As privacy regulations continue to mount and evolve, cyber executive search efforts become even more challenging as compliance becomes another risk organizations cannot afford to cut corners on addressing.

Slone Partners Cybersecurity

specializes in cyber executive search for organizations in all sectors ranging from data analytics to energy to transportation. We can help secure the ideal cybersecurity leader who will build your cyber team and develop a cybersecurity strategy that will protect your data, systems, and people from the dangerous cyberthreats facing almost every company. Contact us today to begin your cyber executive search!