Australia will certainly start looking at increasing the number of IT experts accepted into the country through its immigration system.  A lack of local talent means that right now the cost of just Australia’s cyber security skills shortage is AU $400 million.

Australia’s skills shortages, in most industries, is having far reaching effects and seem to be worse than first thought. The skills shortage in the cyber security sector alone is much worse than expected, found a study conducted by AustCyber — the Australian Cyber Security Growth Network.

A shortfall in Australia’s cyber security workforce may already be costing the nation more than $400 million in lost revenue and wages.

The study found that right now the local infosec sector is already short some 2300 workers, and Australia is expected to need up to 17,600 additional cyber security workers by 2026.

At the moment most growth is from workers transitioning from other sectors, such as IT, rather than graduates entering the workforce and skilled migration.  Industry leaders reacted to the findings of the report saying the Australian Government must do even more to attract off shore talent to Australian shores.

Almost 20,000 people are employed in Australia’s cyber security workforce and it continues to grow at a rate of around 7 per cent a year for the past two years. But, warns the experts, this growth is not nearly enough to meet short-term demand. The cyber security industry is on track to triple in size to $6 billion, driven by a jump in malicious threats and the proliferation of internet-connected devices.

"This is a rapidly growing industry where we'll fall behind if we cannot meet the skills shortage," Science Minister Karen Andrews told The Australian Financial Review.

Australia offers the best paying infosec jobs in the world

Infosec jobs pay well extremely well in Australia.  In fact Senior Australian information security professionals are the highest paid in the world.  Senior infosec professionals are averaging salaries of around US $155,000.  Globally the figure sits at an average of US $130,000 a year. Top average salaries in the US were around $133,000 per annum. The lowest salaries for senior execs were in Germany, where they reported earning about $108,000 a year.

Realizing its job market is understaffed in terms of experienced and qualified cyber security professionals the Australian Government have listed a number of internet / cyber / information technology occupations on both their Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills Occupations List and the Short Term Strategic Skilled Occupations Lists.  Speak to your immigration consultant to find out if your occupation is listed – you may qualify for an Australian Independent Skilled Work visa!

Source: Computer World, Australian Financial Review,