Malware, personal data theft, foreign interference… The number of cyberattacks continues to rise, while companies and institutions struggle to recruit new talent.
15,000 unfilled positions in the cybersecurity sector in 2021. These figures, published by the firm Wavestone last March, show a very significant lack of staff in this essential digital branch. A problem, while computer attacks are on the rise in France (+37% between 2020 and 2021) and paralyze companies and institutions every day. Recently, the André Mignot hospital in Chesnay-Rocquencourt or the department of Seine-et-Marne have become the targets of large-scale cyberattacks.
To overcome this phenomenon, schools and future employers are working to strengthen their pool of young recruits.
License, bachelor, master in engineering schools… The training offers are constantly increasing to meet the needs of the market where demand is mainly focused on positions of consultants, architects and engineers in cybersecurity (52 % of job offers).
EPITA (an engineering school in computer intelligence) has just opened a new three-year course specializing in cybersecurity, in the premises of the Cyber Campus, inaugurated last February at La Défense.
For Marion, who is studying in this bachelor’s degree, the lack of professionals in the sector is explained, among other things, by the lack of communication in secondary school. “When I arrived at the school, I didn’t know anyone about cybersecurity. It is not an environment that is very visible in high school and in lessons outside EPITA“, explains the young woman of 22 years, at the microphone of France 3 Paris Île-de-France.
The French secret services, the DGSE (Directorate General for External Security) have for some time initiated recruitment campaigns for young engineering students. Objective ? Teach them to defend France in the digital space, which according to the intelligence service has become “un place of confrontation“… Proof, if necessary, that the sector lacks brains.
At the beginning of December, on the occasion of a competition day organized by the secret services, 500 students from 33 engineering schools tried to solve tests devised by the technical department of the DGSE.
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Cybercrime: The DGSE is recruiting
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“We need people in IT, in telecoms and in networks. We are looking for people who have […] great loyalty to their country, who are very committed to France“, says, on condition of anonymity, one of the members of the DGSE to the teams of France 3 PIDF.
In order to attract the young recruits who most often go to the private sector, the DGSE notably had to revise its salaries upwards. I’National Information Systems Security Agency (Anssi) reveals that 79% of professionals with five years or less of experience in the field of cybersecurity work in the private sector, compared to 14% in a public administration or a local authority (survey conducted in 2021 on 2,381 respondents).
If the lack of professionals is particularly felt, the cybersecurity professions do not have to be ashamed of their attractive potential. Indeed, 80% of new entrants to the profession are on permanent contracts, according to the same survey, and the majority of them (32%) earn between 35,000 and 45,000 euros per year.
Job satisfaction is also a selling point: 88% of young professionals in the sector say they are satisfied with it.
With Laurence Barby and Antoine Marguet
