Widespread cybersecurity skills shortage forces risky practices
There’s a fundamental problem across EMEA right now. Too many organizations are plugging gaps in their cybersecurity ops with short-term, stopgap measures. They’re doing that out of necessity. They simply can’t find enough skilled professionals to build and maintain solid security systems that scale with today’s threats.
According to new data from Insight, 64% of organizations in the region say they’re leaning on temporary fixes just to stay afloat. That number alone shows you how urgent this is. In the UK, 67% of businesses admit to struggling with a security talent shortage. That pressure is showing up in boardrooms, where executives know their defenses are incomplete and the stakes are rising.
The challenge isn’t limited to technical headcount either. It’s deeper, impacting operational resilience, long-term planning, and strategic risk management. Without the talent to handle emerging threats in real time, many leaders are forced into reactive decision-making. They’re defending the present, but missing the opportunity to proactively secure the future.
The truth is, if you don’t solve the skills issue, no tool or platform will fix your security posture. You’ll keep reacting, wiring in short-term solutions that won’t hold over time. This isn’t sustainable. It’s also not how you future-proof a business.
Cybersecurity talent shortage delays projects and hampers compliance
Cybersecurity isn’t slowing down. Threats are becoming more complex. At the same time, many companies can’t push ahead with digital projects or meet compliance deadlines because they don’t have enough skilled people in the room.
Insight’s research says 57% of EMEA businesses are facing delays in key tech initiatives due to staffing gaps. The same percentage are struggling to meet regulatory requirements for the same reason. Boardrooms are watching innovation get bottlenecked by an overwhelmed and under-resourced security operation.
For C-level leaders, this creates a two-fold risk. First, you lose momentum on innovation, cloud initiatives, AI integrations, digital services. Second, compliance failures expose you to fines, legal impact, and reputational damage. Let’s be clear: the external threat landscape isn’t waiting, and regulators aren’t slowing down either.
What’s missing is the execution capacity. You can have the strategy to lead, but if your security capabilities can’t support it, the risk compounds fast. And right now, that’s happening across too many organizations. Leaders need to act decisively here. Talent is a performance enabler. If you don’t have depth in cybersecurity, your entire tech roadmap is compromised.
Cost and candidate scarcity present major recruitment challenges
Companies know they need more cybersecurity talent, but two things are standing in the way, cost and supply. According to Insight’s data, 68% of IT leaders say the cost of hiring and training cybersecurity talent is a major blocker. Another 65% report a flat-out shortage of qualified candidates in the market.
What this means for executives is simple: trying to hire your way out of this crisis, using traditional methods, won’t scale. Even if you have the budget, the talent may not exist in the local market. And when the competition for those professionals is global, it elevates both financial and strategic pressure on your business.
Leadership needs to think broader than just recruitment. The skills gap isn’t confined to technical roles. It’s running through compliance, operations, and even leadership functions, which means these shortages have real-time consequences across your entire value chain. When your organization can’t move fast on risk mitigation or policy implementation, security becomes fragmented.
It’s essential to rethink your talent development strategy. Upskilling internal teams, building longer-term education pipelines, and automating where it logically makes sense, these should be front and center. The companies that win here aren’t just spending more; they’re thinking smarter about how to build and retain capability in a market where talent density is low and outcomes matter more than headcount.
The cyber skills deficit has evolved into a strategic business risk
The security skills gap has made a permanent move into the boardroom. It’s threatening long-range plans, undercutting digital transformation, and making executive teams second-guess whether they can fully secure what they’re building.
Here’s why that matters: organizations are moving fast, into cloud, into AI, into advanced data environments. But when cybersecurity capability doesn’t scale with that evolution, the entire business faces mounting risk. Strategic leaders are starting to notice the gap between potential and reality. They’re seeing where insecurity creeps in through a lack of resources and oversight.
Adrian Gregory, EMEA President at Insight, captures it well. He says, “The answer isn’t simply more hires or more tools. What’s needed is a fundamental shift in how organisations think about security, from reactive defence to proactive design.” That mindset is key. It means building teams that are built for the future.
More importantly, Gregory is pushing for leadership development that aligns cyber thinking with business direction. That includes having people who can translate complex technical risks into commercial implications. If your executive team can’t connect cyber to value creation, risk to opportunity, you’re not going to move ahead with confidence. And right now, confidence in secure innovation is exactly what’s missing.
Strategic alignment is key to overcoming the cyber talent gap
Solving the cybersecurity talent shortage requires aligning leadership development, technology adoption, and external partnerships in a deliberate and strategic way. This is already defining which companies are building resilience and which are falling behind.
Adrian Gregory, EMEA President at Insight, puts it bluntly: “The organizations that will lead in the next era are those that align strategic talent with intelligent technology and trusted partnerships.” That’s a clear signal to executive teams, security needs to be integrated through every level of business planning.
Smart companies are building internal plans that upskill existing leaders in cybersecurity fundamentals. They’re deploying automation where it adds efficiency but keeping key human-led oversight in areas where it matters most. They’re also leveraging partnerships, not just with tech vendors, but with knowledge institutions and specialized providers that bring depth in critical areas. This alignment creates long-term capacity and responsiveness.
Most importantly, leadership needs to recognize that technical capabilities alone won’t move the needle. It’s the alignment between vision, execution, and ecosystem support that creates real progress. With threats evolving fast and transformation accelerating, there’s no room for silos. Your talent strategy, tech stack, and partnership model all need to serve the same objective: secure, sustainable growth. That happens by design.
Key takeaways for decision-makers
- Risky security practices are becoming the norm: With 64% of EMEA firms relying on stopgap solutions, leaders must invest in sustainable cybersecurity capabilities to avoid long-term exposure.
- Project delays and compliance risks are escalating: 57% of organizations report delayed initiatives and unmet compliance demands due to skill shortages, executive teams should reassess cybersecurity resourcing models to avoid operational gridlock.
- Talent acquisition is hitting cost and supply barriers: With cost flagged by 68% and candidate scarcity by 65% of IT leaders, businesses should shift focus toward internal upskilling, automation, and strategic talent partnerships to offset recruitment pain points.
- Security shortfalls have become a board-level issue: The lack of cyber expertise is eroding trust in digital transformation, executives must embed cybersecurity thinking into leadership and planning to maintain resilience and innovation velocity.
- Strategic alignment is the path forward: To stay ahead, decision-makers should integrate cybersecurity leadership, intelligent tech, and trusted partnerships into a unified approach that builds enterprise-wide security readiness.
