Call for cyber security experts grows louder

Demand is on the rise across all banks in Singapore for cyber security experts who can help combat the increasing threat of cyber attacks and meet the demands of regulators.

Reports estimate that Singapore loses $1.25 billion to cyber crime each year and the Monetary Authority of Singapore has put pressure on banks to heighten their cyber defences. The retail internet banking market in Asia is fiercely competitive and, following a series of high profile data leaks, banks risk serious reputational damage if customer’s account data is compromised.

Cyber security is important to local banks that have the majority of their technology staff in Singapore, containing large cyber teams. The major international investment banks also have significant cyber teams located here. Due to their high skill levels, these teams have been called upon to do work previously managed in the US and Europe.

The Ministry of Manpower reported that in 2012 there were 1,500 cyber security professionals in Singapore, with the number falling to 1,200 last year. Banks in Asia are now facing significant skills shortages due to the increase in demand during that period.

Banks are looking outside the banking industry to meet their needs for cyber experts and are interested in professionals from telecoms, retail, and defence companies. However, this movement of candidates can go both ways.

Banks have looked to relocate cyber professionals from offices in India and Europe with some success, however Singapore’s Fair Consideration Framework has made this more difficult.

In response, the Singapore government launched the five year National Cyber Security Masterplan 2018, which among other things announced collaborations with cyber security firm FireEye and KPMG to build the Asia Pacific Centre of Excellence and the KPMG Cyber Security Centre to improve cyber detection tools and provide training to improve skills.

Within companies cyber security professionals normally belong to the wider Information Security group, which is often a standalone function loosely aligned to technology infrastructure and risk. Cyber security is seen as a clearly defined area within Information Security and has teams covering incident response, monitoring, and virus / malware.

Particular demand exists for Security Architects who can help ward off cyber attacks by upgrading companies’ web applications and improving firewall security using technical skills such as Check Point.

As cyber security is a talent short market, salaries are increasing. Banks are aiming to keep salaries in line with existing employees to keep costs down, but with other industries such as gambling offering large increases to lure the best cyber professionals out of banking, banks will be forced to follow the trend.