By Jason J. Hogg
If you have the skills to stop a cyber hacker in their tracks, you may soon be getting calls from recruiters trying to fill a new crop of jobs throughout corporate America.
Criminal data breaches are predicted to cost businesses a total of $8 trillion over the next four years, outstripping worldwide IT security spending, which is expected to be upwards of $120 billion by 2021, according to Gartner. Meanwhile, there is a shortage of talent, and an anticipated 1.8 million cybersecurity jobs will be unfilled by 2022, with millennials likely playing a big role as cited in a report from the Center for Cyber Education and Safety. These jobs will be in demand as the the number of reported cybersecurity incidents (which doubled between 2016 and 2017) continues to rise. Even with expert cybersecurity firms on retainer to improve overall cyber resilience, companies are struggling to stay ahead in the battle against malicious hackers.
To help close the gap, more businesses are turning to another kind of hacker: the ‘white hats’. Through carefully implemented bug bounty programs, organizations can crowdsource the expertise of security researchers to help…