Blurb
Annual mobility in India’s cybersecurity workforce stands at 18.9%, translating to nearly 57,000 professionals switching employers each year.
CH NEWS
BENGALURU
India’s cybersecurity sector is witnessing intense competition for skilled professionals, with nearly one in five cybersecurity experts changing jobs annually amid growing demand and a widening talent gap, according to a report by Careernet.
The report estimates that annual mobility in India’s cybersecurity workforce has reached 18.9 per cent, resulting in nearly 57,000 professionals switching employers every year. The trend reflects increasing demand for specialised cybersecurity expertise as organisations face escalating cyber threats and rapidly evolving technology environments.
India has emerged as a major hotspot in the global cyber threat landscape. Data from the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) shows that cybersecurity incidents rose from 394,000 in 2019 to 1.5 million in 2023. The report estimates that incident volumes have nearly doubled again, reaching around 3 million cases in 2025.
India currently has an estimated cybersecurity workforce of around 300,000 professionals, accounting for approximately 5.5 per cent of the global experienced cybersecurity talent pool of 5.5 million. However, workforce growth has struggled to keep pace with increasing cyber risks and the demand for advanced security capabilities.
The report notes that around 65,000 cybersecurity professionals are actively seeking new opportunities, while employers are attempting to fill nearly 39,000 open positions. The annual talent pipeline adds between 40,000 and 60,000 professionals, but demand continues to outstrip supply in several specialised domains.
Key sectors driving recruitment include banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), information technology and IT-enabled services, government and defence, telecommunications, and healthcare.
The highest attrition rates were reported in cloud-native and container security (26.67 per cent), AI and machine learning security (25.97 per cent), cloud and infrastructure security (23.04 per cent), endpoint security (22.92 per cent), and security operations and monitoring (22.24 per cent).
According to Anshuman Das, CEO and co-founder of Careernet, traditional areas such as governance, risk and compliance have relatively balanced talent availability. However, emerging domains including AI and ML security, privacy protection, cloud-native security, blockchain and Web3 security, and quantum-safe security continue to face severe demand-supply imbalances.
India’s cybersecurity talent ecosystem has largely evolved through the IT services industry and large security operations centres serving global clients. While this model has created scale, experts believe it has not developed sufficient depth in newer technology-focused security disciplines.
BOX: Demand exceeds talent supply
- Cloud and infrastructure security demand ratio: 104.2%
- Application security demand ratio: 123.3%
- Data security and data loss prevention demand ratio: 115.6%
These figures indicate that available job openings exceed the number of active candidates in several critical cybersecurity segments, highlighting the growing talent shortage in the sector.
