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During periods of economic uncertainty, the outlook often seems to change daily. In a single week, a great jobs report or slowing interest rate hikes might offset disappointing earnings reports — that is, until major companies start announcing massive layoffs.
In such turbulent times, prudent cybersecurity professionals might well question how a recession would affect their job security and the field at large.
The good news is that a full-blown recession is unlikely to have a major effect on cybersecurity job security and the cybersecurity industry at large for the following two reasons:
Considering these factors, it is hard to imagine a recession would seriously threaten cybersecurity job security at the macro level.
On the other hand, these professionals are responsible for challenging, high-stakes work and face substantial day-to-day risk, irrespective of economic conditions. Unfortunately, some security practitioners are likely to take the fall if — or, increasingly, when — an attack adversely affects their companies. On the micro level, cybersecurity job security may, therefore, be less assured, relative to other fields.
Of course, all the above is not to say a recession would have no effect on cybersecurity. Consider the following possible impacts.
A recession would likely influence the cybersecurity job market, if relatively indirectly. For instance, a worsening economy could push nonsecurity professionals to move into the field, due to declining job security in their previous positions.
Such an influx of newcomers could increase the comparative market value of longtime, experienced cybersecurity practitioners and their skill sets. To fully capitalize on this advantage, however, these professionals might need to be flexible about where they are willing to work geographically and how they practice their security trade. For example, professional opportunities could increase significantly in security consulting and educating and training those interested in pursuing security careers.
In a recession, even companies that survive have to deal with constrained budgets. And, while virtually everyone agrees security is essential, it is not always easy to demonstrate the ROI of any specific security product or process.
Security professionals’ best plan of attack is to build data-driven reports that clearly demonstrate the following:
The more specific, concrete benefits security managers can demonstrate in their reports, the better chance they have of justifying their budgets.
Increased budget pressure would drive security managers to look for ways to do more with less. As such, demand for the following security technologies would likely increase in a recession:
Note that one technology not on the above list is quantum computing. While there has been a lot of talk lately about its promise and potential for breaking existing encryption schemes, machines large enough to do so are years away. Quantum is, therefore, unlikely to have any near-term effects on enterprise security, in a recession or otherwise.
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