India’s cybersecurity talent gap grows as skills prove hard to find

India’s cybersecurity talent gap continues to widen as demand for specialized skills outpaces available talent. According to our latest Cybersecurity Talent Outlook Report 2026, India has nearly 300,000 cybersecurity professionals, approximately 5% of the global cybersecurity workforce, yet close to 39,000 positions remain unfilled.

The largest talent shortages are emerging in niche areas such as IoT security, blockchain security, application security, data security, and protection against future threats like quantum computing attacks.

“The report looked at talent across 14 areas of cybersecurity. India has close to 3 lakh cybersecurity professionals, roughly 5% of the world’s total. After IoT and blockchain, the biggest gaps are in application and data security, and protection against future threats like quantum computing attacks. One in five cybersecurity professionals switches jobs every year. But this isn’t growing the talent pool; it’s just the same people moving from one company to another. Security is becoming far more specialized. And specialized talent takes time to build. That’s why attrition is so high — the industry grows at around 9–10%, but people are leaving their jobs at nearly double that rate, 19%,” says our Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Anshuman Das.

He added that most open roles require mid- to senior-level experience, intensifying the challenge of finding qualified cybersecurity talent.