Michael Minear, chief information officer of UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, Calif., has a talented security staff, and as a result, has suffered some consequences.
“We had a team of five, and two of them got poached,” Minear said. “It took a year and a half to replace those two.” That's not an unusual experience.
The market for cybersecurity workers is red hot and that's putting heat on the healthcare industry, which has lagged other industries in information-technology spending.
But after a spate of massive cybersecurity attacks this year, the industry is scrambling to shore up its defenses. Its efforts, however, are hampered by stiffening competition for experienced cybersecurity professionals.
“There is infinite demand” for experienced cybersecurity workers across many industries, said Dan Inbar, chairman of Homeland Security Research Corp., a Washington, D.C., consulting firm. “The supply is 10% of the demand—from the Defense Department to banks to cybersecurity companies.”