Alan Reyes, country manager of Fortinet Philippines, at the Fortinet Accelerate Asia 2023 Philippines Edition.
The present sophisticated threat landscape continues to grow with rapid digitalization and increasing cybersecurity attacks. Organizations across the globe, including the Philippines, are struggling to find the right people to fill critical positions to secure themselves from cyber threats. This situation is because of cybersecurity skills gap, which strains security teams in organizations as they strive to keep up with the ever-evolving threat landscape.
In an exclusive interview with Manila Bulletin, Alan Reyes, the country manager of Fortinet Philippines, identified some of the most significant factors that contribute to cybersecurity skills gap in the country. “First, there is now a higher demand for IT talents with essential cybersecurity skills because of compliance requirements and as security infrastructures become more distributed due to digital acceleration,” he said.
Reyes added that recruiting skilled cybersecurity professionals is now challenging, citing the findings of the Fortinet 2023 Global Cybersecurity Skills Gap Report. According to the report, sixty-three percent (63%) of the surveyed organizations in the Philippines and Malaysia struggle to recruit IT professionals with cybersecurity knowledge because of the limited cybersecurity personnel in the two countries.
“And lastly, organizations have difficulties retaining their cybersecurity talents to secure themselves. The same Fortinet study revealed that 59% of Philippine and Malaysian organizations struggle to keep talent in their security teams,” he continued.
The same report reveals that 86% of the surveyed cybersecurity decision-makers in the Philippines and Malaysia agree that cybersecurity skills gap results in increased cybersecurity risks for their organizations. The report indicated that 92% of organizations encountered one or more breaches during the last 12 months, while 37% experienced five or more during the same period.
While organizations are primarily affected by cybersecurity skills gap, they can also address the problem by providing security teams with more training opportunities to enhance employee skills, knowledge, experience, and job satisfaction.
“Leaders can encourage their security teams to take cybersecurity training and certification programs offered, for example, in the Fortinet Training Institute, where we have the Network Security Expert (NSE) program. This program has eight levels of cybersecurity certification with self-paced and instructor-led training to cater to varying cybersecurity skills and knowledge,” said Reyes, adding that the program consists of NSE 1 and NSE 2 to help build cybersecurity skills.
“Organizations can give training to untapped communities, which include women, veterans, and students, to expand the candidate pool. We can also form partnerships with higher education institutions so students can obtain industry-recognized certifications prior to graduation,” he added.
Introducing the value of cybersecurity to young Filipinos, Fortinet partnered last year with the Department of Education (DepEd) Manila to distribute complimentary copies of a children’s book titled “Cyber Safe: A Dog’s Guide to Internet Security” to chosen schools. The book provides a simple overview of the risks children may face online. The initiative aims to kickstart cybersecurity awareness at an early age and interest the youths in pursuing industry-related degrees.
“According to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the country has an around 200 certified cybersecurity experts. Fortunately, organizations are consciously working to improve cybersecurity skills gap now and in the future,” said Reyes.
“We must remember that cybersecurity requires collaboration between people and technology to safeguard an organization. It begins with qualified, certified, and empowered security teams to secure organizations,” he concluded.