Singapore lacks IT manpower, skills: Bloomberg

Hackers are evolving, but the protagonists are few.

Concern over Singapore’s cybersecurity has been increasing, owing to rampant online attacks and security breaches across the city’s interwebs in recent months.

According to a report by Bloomberg, Singapore firms are lacking skilled and capable professionals, because of a growing worldwide demand for but a small talent pool.

Meanwhile, hackers are drawing advantages from this situation as they continue to improve their business model and trade malware over black markets.

Here’s more from the report:

A survey by human resources firm Robert Half International Inc. this month showed that 60 percent of financial services firms in Singapore are anticipating increased spending on cybersecurity, compared with 44 percent in Hong Kong.

Forty-two percent of financial services firms in Singapore that employ more than 1,000 employees plan to hire permanent employees to manage cyber security, the survey of 150 financial leaders showed. Salaries of IT security experts are expected to rise 10 percent this year compared with 2013, it said.

“Every information professional should be an information security professional as well,” Boland said. “They should be thinking about ’how do I ensure that what I’m building doesn’t create a hazard for the customers and business I built it for.’”