The report from the DCMS has shown that nearly half the businesses in the UK struggle with a cyber skills gap, with many employees unable to fulfill basic tasks such as setting up a firewall. Clearly this calls into question these organization’s ability to protect businesses from cyber threats. The security industry needs to stress the importance of human cyber readiness, as well as an organization’s technical readiness. While you may have all of the bells and whistles to fight off advanced cyberattacks, they are going to prove quite useless if we don’t have the skilled staff on the front lines to use them. This report is evidence that traditional training methods are obviously failing to keep up with the current demand for cyber skills. It is essential that relevant, up to date training is made available to organizations to train security team members, and upskill the ones they already have to ensure they are sufficiently battle-tested when it comes time to deal with a real-life threat. For organizations reading this story who are aware of their own failings in human cyber readiness, I would urge you to first look at how you measure and evidence the cyber skills you have in your organization. Only by measuring your capabilities can you identify the skills gaps you have, the level of risk, and then work out where you need to prioritize hiring and training.  Read Less