The government has developed a draft decree, which specifies the requirements for top managers responsible for cybersecurity in government bodies, constituent entities of the Russian Federation, state funds, state corporations, strategic enterprises and organizations, and subjects of critical information infrastructure (banks, telecom operators, etc.).

The person responsible for cybersecurity would be required to have a higher specialized education “no lower than a specialist’s or master’s degree” or undergo professional retraining. He must understand “the impact of information technology on the work of an organization”, techniques of building information systems, including systems with limited access, ensure the security of company networks, know “the main security threats, the prerequisites for their occurrence and possible ways of their implementation”, as well as their consequences, etc. Such an employee will be liable for violation of his/her duties, action or inaction leading to an unacceptable incident, and disclosure of state secrets.

Experts interviewed by Kommersant say that, considering the staff shortage, it will not be easy to find suitable specialists. According to HeadHunter, by June, 24% more job vacancies in the field of information security were posted on the portal than in 2021 (3.2 thousand in 2022 and 2.6 thousand in 2021), while currently 14.3 thousand CVs are posted on the portal. According to representatives of the service, there are four job applicants per vacancy, which indicates a shortage of specialists.

According to Maria Sigaeva, director of educational programs and projects at Positive Technologies, on average, the annual demand for information security specialists is estimated at 18,000-18,500 thousand people, excluding managers. However, only 14,000 specialists with higher education in cybersecurity graduate annually.

Original in Russian