One in two companies that suffers a serious cyberattack did not have the internal skills to detect it in time. The problem does not stem from a lack of willingness, but from a structurally deficient cybersecurity job market.
When nearly 15,000 cybersecurity positions remain unfilled in France in just one year, recruiting a network expert or a SOC analyst often seems like a pipe dream. It is in this context that corporate IT security increasingly relies on specialized service providers.
Related reading : Huawei ID: how it works and why to use it on your devices?
Cyber Talent Shortage: The Real Driver of Outsourcing
Have you ever tried to recruit a cybersecurity profile? If so, you know the difficulty. Between June 2023 and June 2024, approximately 23,000 cybersecurity job offers were published in France according to the ANSSI’s Cybersecurity Jobs Observatory. The volume of offers surged by nearly 50% between 2019 and 2024, but the pool of candidates has not kept pace.
Specifically, nearly 15,000 cyber positions remained vacant in 2024. This is not a passing phenomenon. The French Federation of Cybersecurity confirms this figure and speaks of a structural deficit. On a global scale, the shortfall exceeds 3.4 million professionals, with particularly strong pressures on cloud skills, industrial security (OT), and proactive defense.
Read also : Discovering Work-Study Programs: A Launchpad for Career Success
For an SME or a mid-sized company, this means one simple thing: building a complete internal cyber team has become nearly impossible. The salary of an experienced SOC analyst, combined with detection tools, software licenses, and ongoing training, represents a budget that most organizations cannot absorb alone. This is the primary reason why critical functions (24/7 monitoring, incident response, vulnerability auditing) are delegated to specialized companies.
When we know that 59% of cyber teams report that their skills gaps affect their ability to secure their organization, corporate IT security can no longer rely on a versatile IT manager. The latter is already managing the network, the workstations, and user support.
NIS 2 Directive and Compliance: What Companies Owe Their Service Providers
The European NIS 2 directive has changed the game for thousands of French organizations. Its scope is much broader than that of the first NIS directive: it now covers sectors such as waste management, manufacturing, postal services, and agri-food. Companies that did not feel concerned by cybersecurity regulations now are.
NIS 2 imposes concrete obligations on executives, not just on technical teams. Among them:
- Implement a risk management policy covering threat analysis, system protection, and business continuity.
- Notify significant incidents to the competent authority within strict deadlines (early warning within 24 hours, detailed report within 72 hours).
- Secure the digital supply chain, which includes assessing suppliers and security contractual clauses.
- Train management bodies on cybersecurity issues, under the threat of personal liability.
For a company that has never structured its cyber governance, responding alone to these requirements is a heavy task. A specialized provider brings the methodological framework (risk analysis, incident response plans) and monitoring tools that allow compliance with notification deadlines.
Supply Chain and Supplier Audits
A often underestimated point: NIS 2 requires companies to assess the security posture of their own suppliers. Every contract with an IT service provider must include verifiable cybersecurity clauses. This implies knowing what to audit, which indicators to monitor, and how to document compliance. Specialized companies have standardized audit grids and regulatory monitoring that internal teams generally do not have the time to maintain.
Continuous Monitoring and Incident Response: Skills That Cannot Be Improvised
Detecting an intrusion in an information system requires specific tools (SIEM, EDR, network probes) and, above all, analysts capable of interpreting alerts. An outsourced SOC (Security Operations Center) operates continuously, including at night, on weekends, and on holidays, periods when attackers are often most active.
Why is this point decisive? Because the detection time directly conditions the extent of the damage. Ransomware that encrypts data for six hours before being detected causes infinitely more damage than a threat neutralized in twenty minutes. An SME with only one IT manager cannot ensure this constant vigilance.
Incident Response: A Protocol, Not Improvisation
When an attack occurs, the reaction must follow a precise plan: isolate compromised systems, preserve digital evidence for potential forensic analysis, restore data from verified backups, and notify authorities within the deadlines imposed by NIS 2.
Specialized companies regularly rehearse these scenarios. They have incident response teams (CSIRT) trained to handle operational pressure, where an unprepared internal team risks making mistakes that worsen the situation (deleting logs, hastily rebooting compromised servers).
The Real Cost of a Cyber Incident vs. the Cost of a Specialized Provider
Many companies hesitate to outsource their cybersecurity for budgetary reasons. The reasoning reverses when comparing the cost of an annual monitoring contract with that of a serious incident: business interruption, loss of customer data, regulatory penalties, damage to reputation.
A security managed services contract can be budgeted, a cyber incident cannot. SMEs that suffer a ransomware attack without preparation face weeks of partial or total interruption. The cost of remediation often exceeds that of several years of outsourced service.
The question is no longer whether a company will be targeted, but when. In a context where threats are becoming more sophisticated and regulations impose high protection standards, delegating critical cyber functions to a specialized provider is not an admission of weakness. It is a rational decision in the face of a skills shortage that will not be resolved in the short term.