The federal government has pledged nearly a billion dollars to strengthen its cybersecurity capabilities — but even the security agency tasked with the bulk of that work acknowledges that recruitment is challenging.
An analyst looks at code in a cybersecurity lab.a large influx of funding to launch cyber operationsCSE, which gathers and decodes signals intelligence and is also in charge of technology security for the government, says it receives 10,000 to 15,000 job applications per year. But only about one or two candidates out of 100 applicants go on to be hired after the skills testing and background security checks.
"We just don't have the talent pool and without developing that talent pool, we're going to be in a lot of trouble," said John Zabiuk, chair of the cybersecurity program at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton.As the number of ransomware and malware attacks rise, more companies and organizations are investing in their in-house cybersecurity, he said.
"It almost becomes like a bidding war for the employees, so unless you can play in that game you're going to miss out on those talents," he said. Christyn Cianfarani is CEO of the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries, which represents hundreds of defence, security and cyber companies. She said that because there's not much in the recent federal budget suggesting the government will lean on the private sector workforce, she's "preemptively pessimistic."
"I refuse to believe that if the U.K. can figure out the way in which to make classified networks, classified systems and the public-private domain swappable, that we can't figure that out in Canada," said Cianfarani."The siloed approach we know doesn't work anymore. We think it should change and this budget didn't give us the warm fuzzies."
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