IT security budgets are rising again this year in the wake of a continuing onslaught of high-profile ransomware attacks. For many IT organizations, this means it may be time to reassess the adequacy of their IT security staffing levels. In this report, we present the five-year trend in IT security staffing and provide benchmarks for understanding IT security staff head count: as a percentage of the IT staff and as a percentage of the Network and Communications Group. We also analyze IT security staffing in terms of the number of applications, the number of users, and the number of network devices. In addition, our analysis includes the influence of organization size and sector on staffing requirements. We conclude with recommendations for optimizing IT security staffing. (22pp., 9 fig.)
[Research Byte]
[Research Byte]