In our latest white paper, “Cyber Expertise at Scale: Your Playbook for Scoring an All-Star Team,” we examine how organizations can address one of the most significant risks facing cybersecurity teams today: the widening cyber talent gap.
The cybersecurity talent shortage is more than a hiring problem — it’s a risk multiplier. With threats evolving daily and regulations becoming more complex, most organizations simply don’t have the internal bench strength to keep up. More than 4.7 million cyber roles remain unfilled globally. Meanwhile, existing teams are stretched thin, and many lack the specialized expertise needed for high-stakes initiatives like cloud migration, compliance audits, or incident response.
You don’t just need more people. You need the right mix of skills, at the right time, in the right roles, for the right duration. That’s the focus of our new guide, “The Strategic Guide to Cyber Expertise at Scale”. It’s built for security and technology leaders who are rethinking how they identify, prioritize, and fill cybersecurity talent gaps without overburdening internal resources or delaying critical initiatives.
The Cyber Talent Shortage Problem
At the core of the cyber talent shortage is one simple truth: traditional hiring models can’t keep up. Recruiting for high-demand roles like cloud security architects, compliance leads, or virtual CISOs can take months. Even when you land a great candidate, burnout and turnover remain constant threats in a fast-changing field. And trying to cover every risk area with full-time hires simply isn’t sustainable — especially for smaller or mid-sized teams that need agility and cost control.
Instead, organizations are adopting a more flexible and scalable approach. That starts with a cybersecurity talent assessment: a structured evaluation of what roles are needed, when, and for how long. From there, leaders can make smarter decisions about how to source that expertise, whether by building internal capabilities, bringing in external specialists, or blending both through fractional or project-based models.
For example, a long-term security operations role may be best suited for an internal hire. But if you’re preparing for a regulatory review or recovering from a breach, it often makes more sense to bring in a compliance expert or incident response leader who can deliver quickly and provide guidance without a lengthy onboarding process. In either case, the goal is to balance availability with adaptability.
The benefits of this approach extend beyond filling gaps. When implemented effectively, external experts act not just as contributors, but as mentors and multipliers — coaching internal teams, transferring knowledge, and improving overall program maturity. This “player/coach” model helps organizations get the immediate support they need while building in-house strength for the future.
Of course, scaling cyber expertise also means keeping pace with change. The roles you needed five years ago aren’t necessarily the ones you need now. AI is redefining what threat detection looks like. Compliance frameworks are becoming more fragmented and region-specific. And distributed teams are now the norm, not the exception.
Staying competitive requires ongoing visibility into skills gaps, risk priorities, and talent availability. All these shifts make it even more important to revisit your cybersecurity staffing strategy regularly and to treat it as a business function, not just an HR process.
That’s why our guide doesn’t just offer short-term advice — it helps organizations plan for what’s ahead. It includes decision-making tools, a role matrix, and examples of when to build, buy or blend cyber talent. It also explores how to get the most out of external engagements by clearly defining scope, embedding experts into internal workflows, and setting outcomes that align with business goals.
In our white paper, we walk through how to conduct a cybersecurity talent assessment, evaluate your mix of internal and external support, and map talent decisions to business risk and urgency. We also provide:
- A decision-making framework for build vs. buy scenarios
- A cyber expertise matrix with real-world role guidance
- Insights into emerging roles (like AI threat modelers and vCISOs)
- Strategies for long-term resilience using a blended staffing model
The cybersecurity talent shortage isn’t going away, but your strategy doesn’t have to stay reactive. With the right people, at the right time, in the right roles, you can move from talent firefighting to cybersecurity maturity. It’s not just about filling roles — it’s about building a resilient, future-ready team.
Download the playbook to get started: Cyber Expertise at Scale: Your Playbook for Scoring an All-Star Team
