BT ups cybersecurity recruiting after demand surge

BT Group has started a drive to recruit 900 staff over the next year in response to a surge in demand for its cybersecurity services.

BT, which currently has more than 2,500 of its global workforce focused on security, said its annual revenues from this sector of the business were growing at a double-digit rate.

Of the 900 new roles, the FTSE 100 group said it expected to take-on and train 170 graduates and apprentices from leading universities, and some recruited after hackathon-style “war-game” competitions.

Most of the roles will be in the UK security operations centres in London, Sevenoaks and Cardiff, with some hiring on the Continent and from the Americas, the Middle-East and Asia-Pacific regions.

“A number of high-profile security and data breaches have dominated the headlines in recent months, and this has led to a surge in interest from both consumers and IT departments wanting to know how best they can protect themselves in the digital world,” said BT Security president Mark Hughes.

“BT plans to remain at the forefront, innovating in cybersecurity, by hiring some of the best talent while training up the next generation of experts.”

Corporate interest in cybersecurity has been sparked by infamous incidents of cyber-attacks, such as the embarrassing hack into TalkTalk's systems, that has demonstrated growth in the rate and complexity of cyber-crime.

A February study by UK accountancy trade bodies warned that the consequences of a cybersecurity breach had become too serious to ignore for FTSE 100 companies but that corporate awareness was beginning to rise, with 85% of surveyed companies admitting concern about cybercrime risks.

BAE Securities' Applied Intelligence commercial cyber security business has been one of the fastest-growing parts of the FTSE 100 defence group as it widens its customer base from a history of working with intelligence agencies to win a larger share of the rapidly growing commercial market to protect critical business data.

At the other end of the scale, stock market interest in this area has led to £16m cybersecurity specialist Osirium Technologies plot its London flotation, due to complete later this month.