Bengaluru: Nearly one in five cybersecurity professionals in India changed jobs over the past year, underscoring an intensifying war for talent as organisations grapple with rising cyber threats and acute shortages in emerging areas such as AI security, cloud security and industrial systems protection.According to a report by Careernet, India has become a major hotspot in the global cyber threat landscape. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) recorded 1.5 million cybersecurity incidents in 2023, up from 394,000 in 2019. Incident volumes are estimated to have nearly doubled again to around 3 million in 2025.India’s cybersecurity workforce is estimated at about 300,000 professionals, representing roughly 5.5% of the global experienced cyber talent pool of 5.5 million. However, the report says workforce growth has failed to keep pace with the rapid expansion of cyber risks and evolving technology environments.Annual mobility in India’s cybersecurity workforce stands at 18.9%, translating to nearly 57,000 professionals switching employers each year. At the same time, around 65,000 professionals are actively seeking opportunities, while employers are trying to fill nearly 39,000 open positions. The annual talent pipeline is estimated to add between 40,000 and 60,000 professionals. Key hiring sectors include BFSI, IT and ITeS, government and defence, telecom, and healthcare.The highest attrition rates were recorded in cloud-native and container security (26.67%), AI/ML security (25.97%), cloud and infrastructure security (23.04%), endpoint security (22.92%), and security operations and monitoring (22.24%). The report notes that much of this movement reflects professionals switching employers rather than growth in the overall talent pool, forcing organisations to compete for the same limited pool of specialists. “In traditional areas such as governance, risk and compliance, talent availability is relatively balanced. However, specialised domains including AI/ML security, privacy, cloud-native security, blockchain and Web3 security, and quantum-safe security face clear demand-supply gaps,” said Anshuman Das, CEO and cofounder of Careernet.India’s cybersecurity talent base has largely evolved through the IT services model, with large security operations centres supporting global clients. While this has created scale, capability depth has lagged demand in new-age technology domains.The imbalance is most visible in cloud and infrastructure security, where the demand ratio has reached 104.2%, application security at 123.3%, and data security and data loss prevention at 115.6%, indicating more open positions than active candidates. The shortages are even more severe in emerging fields. IoT and connected-device security recorded a demand ratio of 237%, while blockchain and Web3 security stood at 230.2%.The report also highlighted a structural mismatch in the talent market. While supply remains adequate for entry-level security operations centre roles, there is a chronic shortage of Level 2 and Level 3 analysts, security architects and specialised engineers.Das said the challenge is not merely adding more cybersecurity professionals but building deeper expertise in emerging fields. As organisations adopt AI, cloud platforms and connected devices, cybersecurity has become a board-level priority driven by financial, regulatory and reputational risks, making specialised talent increasingly critical.