The late 1990s dot-com boom saw internet adoption explode, venture capital pour in, new roles appear overnight, and salaries and opportunity follow. Cybersecurity in the 2020s is seeing a similar demand surge, though with a different shape. Companies are investing heavily to protect digital assets, governments and militaries are prioritizing cyber readiness, and AI is reshaping both attack and defense, creating new roles and higher pay for skilled professionals.
Industry estimates and studies show a massive global talent shortage in cybersecurity—historically measured in millions of open roles. For instance, Cybersecurity Ventures projected 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs through 2025.
More recent studies show different ways of counting the gap—the workforce size vs. the demand. An ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study estimated the global cybersecurity workforce at about 5.5 million people, while still describing a multimillion supply-demand gap.
As per a 2025 KPMG Cybersecurity Survey, 53 percent of leaders cited a lack of qualified candidates as a high-impact challenge, prompting higher compensation (49 percent), more internal training (49 percent), and more reliance on external partners (25 percent), including Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs), to close critical gaps.
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