I have a visceral reaction every time I encounter yet another article bemoaning the so-called "talent gap" or "labor gap" in cybersecurity. Having been in and out of the job market several times over the past decade (for better and, more often, for worse), I can honestly say this is utter nonsense. The roots of this clamor began more than a decade ago in DC as federal agencies grappled with modernizing, making use of the annual Sept/Oct budget season to decry how poor and helpless they were in order to justify demands for ever-increasing budgets. Local universities (such as UMUC) quickly caught on to the marketing plan and rapidly launched a cybersecurity degree program. Meanwhile, ISC2 helped ensure that the CISSP was a mandatory component for hiring in many positions.
While I am still in the midst of a job search (one that's a year old at this point), I find I need to speak out on the recent TechCrunch OpEd piece "Too few cybersecurity professionals is a gigantic problem for 2019" in order to address some of the nonsensical statements made that really have no business being taken seriously. The author does get a couple things right, but not enough to compensate for perpetuating many myths that need to be put to rest.
