IT Security Staffing Ratios and Trends

August, 2008

$195.00

There is little doubt that security professionals remain in strong demand. Yet the percentage of IT employees actually dedicated to security in any given IT organization is relatively small and has been declining, somewhat surprisingly, over the past three years. In this study, we provide three metrics for security staffing: security staff as percentage of total IT staff, number of users per security professional, and number of network support employees per security professional. We first examine the trend in security staffing by analyzing staffing ratios for the composite sample. We then provide the three metrics by organization size. Third, we show how these metrics vary by industry sector. Finally, we examine how outsourcing, network complexity, and the number of network sites can influence security staffing needs. We conclude with our assessment of current trends in security staffing. (7 pp., 12 figs.)
[Executive Summary]