Who goes there? BCS survey says security a top priority for many IT executives

On Friday, even Hollywood will join the conversation about cybersecurity — or perhaps we should say rejoin it, since many in the entertainment industry are barely recovered from a widespread tizzy over the real world hack of top-level Sony Pictures Entertainment business communications that leaked in the final two months of 2014. This time around, the digital banditry is strictly fictional, confined to the screenplay of the Michael Mann-directed cybercrime thriller Blackhat.

Many have questioned the timing of the movie's release, since sending a film with any amount of pedigree or cachet (in addition to the involvement of respected director Mann, Blackhat boasts the presence of rising matinee idol Chris Hemsworth) to theaters in January is often viewed as being an admission of substandard craftsmanship. In IT circles, however, the release couldn't be more timely. Last week the British Computer Society joined a growing chorus of voices either reporting or predicting that improved cybersecurity will be a top priority of nearly everyone in the months ahead.

If you're looking to carve out a certification niche that will have hiring managers frantically sifting the slush pile to get to your resume, try taking aim at just about anyone's advanced cybersecurity credentials.

Specifically, the BCS found in its survey of nearly 350 IT business leaders that improved security is a top organizational priority just about everywhere. As BCS executive Adam Thilthorpe put it in a statement to press, "It's quite clear that security, of almost every shape and size, is the main thing keeping IT professionals awake at night. This is no surprise; (security) is no longer an IT issue alone, but the most important issue across the board." One strong indicator that the number of available jobs in cybersecurity could be about to spike: The BCS survey found that 92 percent of respondents do not believe their enterprise, as presently constituted, has the resources it needs to directly address top priorities.

The BCS is far from alone in pointing to cybersecurity as a key area of concern to many business and IT leaders. A similar report of a recent survey in Business Insider finds that 75 percent of CIOs (112 CIOs were surveyed across eight different industries) are intending to increase spending on security in 2015, up from 59 percent a year ago. An article in Global Finance predicts that hackers will ramp up attacks in 2015, lured by the boom in mobile computing devices and the rapid ongoing transition to cloud computing services. And a survey of CIOs at state agencies in the United States found that state government leaders are planning to get serious about cybersecurity as well.

With all this buzz about security, even people who merely play cybersecurity experts in the movies, like Hemsworth, could find find their fake services in demand. As both Ed Tittel and Aaron Axline recently predicted here at GoCertify, there's no time like the present to consider taking your IT career in a cybersecurity direction.