57% Firms Struggle to Hire AI Security Specialists as India’s Cybersecurity Talent Crisis Deepens: SANS-DSCI Study

India’s cybersecurity landscape is entering a new phase — one where the challenge is no longer just about deploying security technologies, but about building a workforce capable of defending increasingly complex AI-driven digital environments.

According to the newly launched Indian Cyber Security Skilling Landscape 2025–2026 report by SANS Institute and DSCI, 57% of cybersecurity providers say they are struggling to hire AI/ML security specialists, making AI security the single hardest cybersecurity domain to recruit for today.

The report highlights how the rapid adoption of AI, GenAI, cloud-native systems, APIs, and connected infrastructure is fundamentally reshaping enterprise cybersecurity requirements — even as the industry grapples with widening capability gaps across the workforce.

“The same playbook is now being played faster,” says James Lyne, CEO, SANS Institute. “AI hasn’t completely changed what attackers do. It has accelerated the pace and scale at which they do it.”

According ...