Each week, 1.6% of the world’s corporations are hit by new ransomware attacks - a threat that often travels under the radar but has devastating consequences, costing Asian businesses an average of $2.71 million per breach (Source: Channel Asia).
As Asia’s economy has been massively stimulated by rapidly growing digital landscapes (totalling $5.4 trillion in value in China alone), industries are looking to partner with software vendors to implement programs that secure their digital transformation strategies and improve their services.
Challenges Facing Cybersecurity in Asia
With businesses becoming ever more reliant on digital platforms and software in order to operate, governments across the world are enforcing strict data regulations and putting organizations on the firing line for acting responsibly. Asian companies, with the help of software vendors, now need to meet international standards through a smart cybersecurity intelligence plan that addresses the following challenges:
Global Threats: Industries like manufacturing (which contributes to 23% of Eastern Asia's GDP according to the World Bank) are often just one segment of a supply chain. Worldwide communications put cybersecurity measures in the control of someone else’s hands, making data tracking incredibly difficult.
Cross-Platform Risks: Operating systems, data storage networks, and CRM software are all at risk of malicious malware attacks. The current state of cybersecurity means that even one area of weakness (such as a personal, unprotected device being used to log into a public server) can cause a chain of events across the board; leaking confidential information and halting business activity.
Lack of Infrastructure: The gap is widening in technology infrastructure, such as cloud servers, in many major cities in Asia aren’t on par with those in the US or UK. Last year saw South-East Asia recording the biggest increase in data breaches worldwide, with over 2.3 million threats in Q1 for Singapore alone (Source: TechWire).
Talent Shortages: Source Net reports that 49% of enterprises list cybersecurity as a top priority going into 2022, and this will mean that more pressure is put on available human resources. In order to match demand, talent pools would need to grow by 65% in the coming years in order to combat the cybersecurity skills shortage. (Source: The Daily Swig).
The 3 Driving Forces of Cybersecurity Talent Demand in Asia
1. The International Technology Industry
One main factor driving cybersecurity talent demand is the economic growth of software vendors across the world, and particularly those in regions such as the US, UK, and Israel. With the global cybersecurity market now valued at $217.9 billion, high levels of competition are stimulated, which encourages companies (and start-ups) to look for new opportunities to grow.
Asia is facing a future where the current cybersecurity talent supply may be unable to meet the predicted growth in demand, creating an advantage for security vendor start-ups that operate in booming sectors, such as:
Cloud Security
Application Security / DevSecOps
Attack Surface Management
OT/IOT Security
For pre-established companies to maintain their market share - or expand it - they’ll have to be smart with their hiring decisions.
After all, there’s no doubt that human resources will be essential to keeping ahead of the competition with innovative, forward-thinking talent attraction strategies to help them in securing experienced Sales, Pre-Sales and Post-Sales staff.
Software vendors will have to optimize their standard recruitment practices, such as improving their application-to-offer timescale, being careful about the number of interview rounds, providing honest feedback to unsuccessful candidates, and keeping an eye on their overall employer brand on national recruitment sites like Glassdoor and Payscale.
This will ensure economic success for these companies and will fuel the growing investment in the Asia-Pacific cybersecurity market, which is now valued at $30.45 billion (Source: Mordor Intelligence), protecting a strong digital economy that is expected to add $1 trillion in GDP to SEA in the next 10 years (Source: Kearney).
2. Customer Support
Global organizations across different industries are starting to recognize the potential to connect with new audiences from the total population of 4.68 billion people in Asia.
As a result, large-scale Top 500 companies are establishing local customer support teams, building data centres and manufacturing facilities, all of which need secure platforms to operate on. Asian HQ Enterprise businesses and Governments are rapidly evolving their ICT Infrastructure, with significant increases in Cloud adoption and a shift to RPA.
Security Software Vendors are therefore compelled to hire local, in-Country Technical Support, Customer Success, Site Reliability and Professional Services Engineers, with the pandemic accelerating this shift from Global support fulfillment due to the inability to ‘parachute in’ this resource and further driving cybersecurity talent demand in Asia.
3. Attractive Work Cultures
The world’s digital economy has enabled more companies to consider long-term investment for growth in Asia. They are starting to commit themselves fully to marketing, branding, and advertising locally in order to increase revenue, and part of any growth strategy is building a strong working culture to attract and retain talent. This drive toward cultural improvement in end user Enterprise business and Government is being mirrored in the Vendor world.
Furthermore, investment from private equity firms is transforming work cultures across the cybersecurity Software Vendor market in Asia.
No longer is it enough to simply offer candidates mid-level salaries and share packages, cybersecurity professionals are demanding more. In order to compete against other software vendors, HRMs are making the most of available technologies to deliver flexible hours and remote work: resulting in a strong work-life balance. Experienced cyber professionals are keenly aware of the current disparity between supply and demand in their industry - and are preferring to work with employers who provide attractive work cultures.
Therefore, FDI is not only creating a greater movement of people across industries, but it is also starting to set the groundwork for an attractive job market for young Asian workers who will seek to join a cybersecurity Software Vendor in the future.
In order to compete with start-ups and established Principals alike, software vendors operating in Asia will have to offer qualified cybersecurity employees a range of training and development initiatives along with comprehensive benefits such as comprehensive medical insurance plus family coverage and unlimited annual leave to both attract and retain talent.
Recruiting with Xcede
If you’re a software vendor competing for professionals in Asia, put yourself ahead of the competition with Xcede. We are global cybersecurity recruitment specialists who source and select top talent for every single one of our clients. Our dedication to finding you cybersecurity industry candidates with the right skills and experience allows you to concentrate resources in practicing safe data protection while we fill essential gaps in your workforce.
Get in touch with our expert team to find out more
