Cybersecurity competence map of Lithuania

Abstract

The rapid advancement of technologies and transfer of services to cyberspace inevitably leads to an increased number of cyber incidents raising a threat to national economic and political stability. Cybersecurity (CS) specialists tasked with the prevention of these incidents usually have IT education. Demand for these specialists grows in Lithuania the same way as in other countries. However, it is not easy to satisfy it because the CS job requires specific technological knowledge from several overlapping areas as well as an extensive collection of general competencies. Therefore, a country must have a national-level strategy of recruitment and coordinated education of the specialists to meet future workforce demands. Experience of other countries shows a need to attract non-technological specialists to the area. This project aims to prepare the first Lithuanian cyber competence map together with recommendations on how to attract specialists to the CS sector and how to advance their competencies. During the project, we explored the demand for CS specialists in Lithuania and the world, surveyed the opinions of CS professionals, management and specialists from private and public sector organizations, including national defence sector. Also, we determined the career path of the specialists, analyzed job offers, distinguished work roles, and gathered findings and recommendations from scientific research papers and similar reports of other countries. The results of the project include a publicly available database of collected data, expert findings of the research and recommendations for stakeholders, and a submitted scientific article to promote the results.