By Computerworld Hong Kong staff
Computerworld Hong Kong
March 10, 2010

HONG KONG - Defying expectations amid a global recession, the (ISC)2 2010 Career Impact Survey found that half of information security professionals surveyed in both Asia Pacific and worldwide received salary increases in 2009, while less than five percent of participants lost their jobs.

(ISC)2 (”ISC-squared”), the not-for-profit membership body of certified information security professionals worldwide recently announced the results of its second survey tracking the impact of the economic climate on salaries, hiring outlook, budgets, threats and more. Nearly 3,000 security professionals, about 320 residing Asia Pacific including Japan, participated, said the organization.

According to The (ISC)2, the survey was conducted from December 2009 to January 2010 with 2,980 respondents from 80 countries to gain insights into how the economic downturn affected the profession in 2009 and gauge the 2010 outlook.

More than half of the Asia Pacific professionals surveyed, 51.4 percent, and received pay increase in 2009, said (ISC)2, adding that 51.4 percent of participants from all around the globe reported the same.

In the region, 9.8 percent of respondents saw their salaries and/or benefits cut, while (3.5 percent were sacked by their employers, said the organization.

Firms are hiring security pros
Of the 800-plus respondents who identified themselves as having hiring responsibilities, more than half, 53.3 percent (68.4 percent in Asia Pacific) said they were looking to hire permanent and/or contract employees in 2010.

Of those hiring, 53.4 percent in Asia Pacific and 40 percent worldwide said they will be hiring three or more information security professionals this year, said (ISC)2.

“These results indicate that the Asia Pacific region has the most promising hiring outlook for 2010 compared to the Americas and EMEA regions,” said W. Hord Tipton, CISSP-ISSEP, CAP, CISA, executive director for (ISC)2.

Over 85 percent of hiring managers both globally and in Asia Pacific said their biggest hiring challenges were finding candidates with the right skills and the right level of experience, the organization said.

The hiring managers surveyed in the region said that they were looking for candidates with specific skills in these top five categories: information risk management; security management practices; auditing; security architecture and models and telecommunications and network security, (ISC)2 noted.

Other findings from the survey include:

* About half of the respondents (51.1 percent globally; 51.6 percent in Asia Pacific) saw their information security budgets decrease somewhat or significantly in 2009; 36.9 percent globally (46.8 percent in Asia Pacific) expect no change in their budgets for 2010. This compares to over two-thirds (72 percent) of respondents who reported that their budgets were reduced in the 2009 survey.

* About 53.9 percent of Asia Pacific respondents expect no personnel reductions or layoffs in 2010; while 12.3 percent expect additional layoffs last year.

* In Asia Pacific, 28 percent of respondents believe the economic downturn is causing an increased security risk within their organization; 53.5 percent of whom identified employee misconduct as the most common security risk attributed to the economic downturn, compared to 37.7 percent globally. Outside attacks from hackers was identified as the second most common risk by 31.3 percent globally and 25.3 percent in Asia Pacific.

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