Companies and CEOs are now coughing up millions of dollars to keep and hire seasoned cybersecurity experts as hacking incidents are on the rise, according to Bloomberg.
"It's a full-on war for cyber talent," said Matt Comyns, a managing partner at executive search firm Caldwell Partners. "CEOs know that, so they play hardball. Everyone's throwing money at this."
In one instance, Mr. Comyns was recruiting a cybersecurity expert to join one of America's largest companies as the chief information security officer in 2012 for a $650,000 salary. Today, that same company paid $2.5 million to fill the CISO role.
The fines, lawsuits and executive resignations that accompany data breaches are among the reasons companies are scrambling to acquire security experts, Bloomberg reports. In the 12 months ended August 2018, there were more than 300,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs in the U.S., according to data from CyberSeek.
Some big technology companies are willing to pay as much as $6.5 million, most of it in stock, to find cybersecurity executives, Mr. Comyns said. Chief executives are also getting involved in the negotiating process because their reputations could be on the line.