India’s cybersecurity sector is witnessing intense competition for talent, with nearly one in five professionals changing jobs over the past year amid growing cyber threats and a shortage of specialised expertise.
According to a report by Careernet, annual workforce mobility in India’s cybersecurity industry stands at 18.9%, translating to nearly 57,000 professionals switching employers each year.
Cyber threats rising rapidly
The report highlights India’s growing exposure to cyber risks. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) recorded 15 lakh cybersecurity incidents in 2023, compared to nearly 3.94 lakh incidents in 2019. The number is estimated to have surged to around 30 lakh incidents in 2025.
India currently has an estimated cybersecurity workforce of around 3 lakh professionals, accounting for about 5.5 per cent of the global experienced cyber talent pool.
Demand outpaces available talent
While around 65,000 cybersecurity professionals are actively seeking jobs, organisations are trying to fill nearly 39,000 open positions. Experts say the challenge is not the lack of professionals but the shortage of specialists in emerging domains.
The highest attrition rates were recorded in cloud-native and container security, AI and machine learning security, cloud infrastructure security, endpoint security, and security operations.
Emerging fields face biggest shortage
The report points to significant talent gaps in specialised areas such as AI security, cloud-native security, blockchain and Web3 security, IoT security, and quantum-safe security.
Demand for experts in IoT and connected-device security is more than double the available supply, while blockchain and Web3 security also face severe shortages.
Careernet CEO and Co-founder Anshuman Das said organisations are increasingly seeking professionals with deep expertise as cybersecurity becomes a boardroom priority driven by financial, regulatory and reputational risks.
As businesses accelerate their adoption of AI, cloud computing and connected technologies, the demand for highly skilled cybersecurity professionals is expected to grow even further.