Bad Economy but Bright Future for Some Info Technology Pros

Software as a service, mobile applications and data security should continue to flourish during the recession.

That’s the gist of a story posted on The Wall Street Journal website:

While the spending slowdown is expected to hit many technology categories, some pockets of tech—such as online software, mobile applications and security—may see increased investment and attention.

Companies investing more in all three of these tech categories make sense. Also known as a variation of cloud computing, software as a service—online apps that replace those housed on PCs, laptops and servers—provide similar benefits at much lower costs. With more people using wireless devices, creating new mobile applications helps drive productivity. And, as The New York Times reported earlier this month—in an article entitled "Thieves Winning Online War, Maybe Even in Your Computer"—securing corporate computers and networks are more crucial than ever.

With vast resources from stolen credit card and other financial information, the cyberattackers are handily winning a technology arms race. “Right now the bad guys are improving more quickly than the good guys,” said Patrick Lincoln, director of the computer science laboratory at SRI International, a science and technology research group.

The Journal's report concurs:

The economic downturn is heightening cyber security problems. Phishing attacks—emails that pretend to be from banks or some other legitimate source—are growing in sophistication. Cyber criminals capitalized on the collapse of several financial institutions this year by sending emails claiming that customers of failed banks needed to log on to a Web site and update their account information. The Web sites were really controlled by cyber criminals.

With the right skills, prospects for many IT pros look solid in these recessionary times.

Technology Jobs Seen Emanating from Healthcare Modernization

An Obama administration economic stimulus package worth up to $1 trillion could help IT employment in healthcare.

That's the prognosis offered by the career site Jobfox. The top jobs to modernize U.S. healthcare would include IT, bioinformatics and information security specialists as well as software developers, Jobfox says.

Stimulus projects to construct roads, bridges, transit and rural broadband would include, Jobfox guesses, computer-aided drafting specialists and telecommunications engineers among the top jobs.

The Most Secure Job in IT, Part 2

A one-time Interior Department CIO who now heads a not-for-profit group promoting information security education sees the jobs of information security professionals being stable in this turbulent economy.

Quoted in a posting on BankInfoSecurity.com, (ISC)² executive director Hord Tipton (left) says:

“Even if downsizing in companies is severe, the IT security folks are generally the last to go because their job functions are critical to continuing the business regardless of how many employees are left. There's so much information that people have to still protect—it's digital, it's in databases and transmitted over wires—networking and security people are going to be required.”

Tipton cites research he says shows that IT security managers and architects rate near the top in terms of the most protected jobs.

“There may actually be an increased demand for them in many cases because the insider threat is greater than ever. The information security staff must monitor the IT department as well as end-users. People are looking for something to make them more marketable when they must leave their current employer, and thus are tempted to leave with your data.”

Other relatively secure IT jobs during this recession are those involving audit and IT governance. In another interview conducted by BankInfoSecurity.com, this one with Deloitte & Touche partner Gary Baker (right), the firm's enterprise risk expert sees a continued need for information security and risk management skills. Baker said:

“With the economic situation that faces us, it is quite likely that those IT security and risk management that can effectively make the connection between security, risk management and regulatory compliance on the one hand, and adding value to the bottom line of the organization on the other, will be the most successful. Management will want to focus on improving bottom line performance—in addition to meeting their compliance requirements.”

An earlier post, The Most Secure Job in IT, referred to a story in The New York Times that contends Internet security is broken, and quotes Phillip Porras, a program director and computer security expert at SRI International, as saying: “To me it feels like job security.”

The Ultimate IT Security Job

The incoming Obama administration is being urged by a technology commission to create a new cybersecurity post that would report directly to the president.

According to a story in Monday's Wall Street Journal:

The new White House post is likely to be the most controversial of the commission's recommendations. In its report, the commission compared the job to that of the director of national intelligence. The cyber chief would report to the president and have his own staff of 10 to 20 people who would work with a beefed-up National Security Council cyber staff and federal agencies to implement the president's cyber policies.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies created the commission last year after a series of cyberattacks on federal computers. According to the Journal, Obama's transition team is seen using the commission's recommendations to help chart a path for the sprawling $15 billion cyber-security initiative launched this year by the Bush administration.

Click here for a PDF copy of the report.