In order to better understand this gap, Check Point Software Technologies recently surveyed 450 IT professionals across the world, asking them questions about their challenges in managing their organizations’ security.

The results were startling. We found that 77 percent of all respondents were concerned with their security teams’ capabilities to deal with current and future cyber security challenges.  When asked for the reasons for these concerns, 67 percent expressed that their teams lack the cyber-security knowledge and expertise required to handle the current level of cyber-attacks.

This human capital vulnerability is affecting everyone from the largest multinational enterprises to small business and nonprofits. Small businesses in particular are vulnerable, as 86 percent of the thirty million small businesses in the United States do not have dedicated cyber-security staff. Cyber-criminals are well aware of this gap – it’s a big reason why 70 percent of their attempted attacks on small business succeed in accessing confidential company data.

I can’t shake the sense that there’s a major element of this situation that isn’t being addressed, an element equally critical as repairing the talent pipeline. We need to determine whether our industry’s existing, exceedingly complex products are truly helping teams do their jobs.