Threat of cyber crime drives higher salaries for security professionals

Employers are offering salaries up by 14 percent on average for IT security specialists in the light of the growing threat posed by cyber crime.

A Global Salary Survey by UK specialist recruitment company Robert Walters also sees salaries for developers increasing as major employers look to overhaul their online presence.

Developer salaries are set to grow nine percent this year as against five percent for the industry as a whole, thanks to digital transformation projects in large companies, many of them driven by a new emphasis on data security.

It's security roles that see the biggest increases though with heads of cyber security and security analyst roles seeing 18 percent increases. Even junior security support positions are set to have seven percent growth.

"Over the last year we've seen a massive increase in both permanent and interim cyber security roles due largely to the ongoing threat around IT and cyber crime. The challenges facing companies continue to grow in volume and complexity as cyber security threats constantly evolve," says Steve Corbett, Associate Director, IT recruitment at Robert Walters. "The impact of high profile IT security breaches involving attacks on major companies has served to bring this emerging threat into the public eye, increasing pressure from regulators and legislators on companies to have a dedicated cyber security representative and to meet specific standards of security".

More detail on the survey results is available to download from the Robert Walters website.

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