<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><span style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br>
The final results of a survey conducted by (ISC)²® (“ISC-squared”), the
not-for-profit global leader in educating and certifying information
security </span><br style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">professionals
throughout their careers, suggests that information security
professionals can look forward to a future with new jobs coming onto
the </span><br style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">market and
fewer expected budget cuts. The survey also indicated, however, that
hiring managers are struggling to fill positions as candidate salary </span><br style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">expectations and skill levels do not meet current demand.</span><br style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">(ISC)²
conducted the survey in April and May 2009 to gain insight on the
impact the economic downturn is having on its certified membership and </span><br style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">their
employers. Members were queried about the effect on various budgets and
their organisation and asked about their expectations for the future. </span><br style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">They confirmed
that outsourcing is having an impact but that activity on this front
may be slowing – 30 percent had reported increased levels of </span><br style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">outsourcing of
security functions, while only 18.7 percent expected the situation to
worsen in the next six months. Confirming preliminary findings </span><br style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">released in April, budget cuts may also be slowing.</span><br style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">Over
two-thirds (nearly 72 percent) of respondents said their information
security budgets had been reduced in the six-month period from October </span><br style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">2008 – March
2009, and roughly half (53.6 percent) revealed that their information
security departments had experienced at least one lay-off in the </span><br style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">past few
months. Looking forward, 62 percent said they did not expect any
additional information security budget cuts for the remainder of the
year, </span><br style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">while nearly 9
percent expected an increase. Just over 59 percent said no additional
personnel cuts would be forthcoming the remainder of the year.</span><br style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;">The full results can be found here: <a href="https://www.isc2.org/uploadedFiles/Career_Survey.pdf">DOWNLOAD</a><br>
<br>
https://www.isc2.org/uploadedFiles/Career_Survey.pdf</span></td></tr></table><br>