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Indonesia Is Buying More Cybersecurity Technology. Are Its People Ready?
As AI, cloud and security automation reshape the threat environment, Indonesia faces a growing gap between the technology organizations deploy and the skills needed to secure it.
ITSEC Asia
Indonesia is investing more in cybersecurity technology as businesses move deeper into cloud computing, AI and digital services. Security platforms are becoming more sophisticated, but the people operating them have to keep pace.
That gap is becoming harder to ignore.
The 2025 ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study found that 95% of cybersecurity professionals reported at least one skills need within their organizations. AI was identified as the top skills gap at 41%, followed by cloud security at 36%.
The issue, then, isn't simply a shortage of cybersecurity professionals. It's a shortage of people with the specific skills needed to secure increasingly complex technology.
New Technology Creates New Security Skills
A company moving its infrastructure to the cloud needs professionals who understand cloud architecture, identity and access management and cloud-specific vulnerabilities.
An organization adopting AI needs people who understand how AI systems can be secured and how attackers can exploit them.
A security team deploying more automated tools still needs analysts who can investigate alerts and distinguish a genuine attack from a false positive.
The skills organizations increasingly need include:
- AI and AI security
- Cloud security
- Penetration testing
- Threat detection and incident response
- Security operations
- Application and API security
The World Economic Forum's Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026 found that 87% of respondents identified AI-related vulnerabilities as the fastest-growing cyber risk during 2025.
As AI adoption accelerates, cybersecurity professionals are being asked to understand both sides of the technology: how it can improve defense and how it can create new attack opportunities.
Security Technology Can't Make Every Decision
More security tools can improve visibility, but they don't eliminate the need for expertise.
A vulnerability scanner can identify hundreds of findings. A security professional still needs to determine which vulnerabilities are exploitable, which systems are exposed and which issues require immediate action.
A SIEM can generate thousands of alerts. Someone still needs to investigate them, understand the context and determine whether an organization is actually under attack.
AI can help accelerate these processes, but human judgment remains part of the security equation.
Technology can provide:
- Security alerts
- Vulnerability findings
- Threat intelligence
- Automated analysis
- Automated responses
Cybersecurity professionals provide:
- Investigation
- Context
- Risk assessment
- Prioritization
- Decision-making
The 2026 Fortinet Cybersecurity Skills Gap Report found that 71% of organizations believe the cybersecurity skills gap creates additional risk.
That makes skills a direct part of an organization's security posture.
The Training Gap Matters Too
Cybersecurity education needs to keep pace with the systems professionals are actually expected to protect.
Learning security concepts is necessary, but professionals also need practical experience. They need to understand what happens when a vulnerability is discovered, how an incident develops and how different security technologies work together.
Practical cybersecurity training should give people experience with:
- Penetration testing and vulnerability assessment
- Incident investigation and response
- Security operations
- Cloud security
- AI security
- Realistic attack and defense scenarios
This matters for both experienced professionals and people entering the cybersecurity industry. As technology changes, continuous skills development becomes part of the job rather than a one-time step at the beginning of a career.
Building the Skills Behind Indonesia's Cybersecurity Technology
Indonesia's cybersecurity investment will continue to grow. But technology alone can't close the security gap.
Organizations need people who understand how to configure, operate and challenge the systems they deploy. They need professionals who can work across cybersecurity and emerging technologies rather than treating them as separate disciplines.
That's the thinking behind the ITSEC Cyber & AI Academy.
The Academy brings cybersecurity and AI education together with a practical focus, helping professionals and aspiring cybersecurity talent develop skills aligned with the technologies and threats shaping the industry.
For Indonesia, the next challenge isn't simply buying better cybersecurity technology.
It's building the people who know how to use it.
Build the skills behind the technology.
Explore the ITSEC Cyber & AI Academy and develop practical cybersecurity and AI capabilities for the next generation of digital threats.
