A new MTSU report provides evidence that demand for information security knowledge is increasing across tech occupations in Middle Tennessee.

Released Thursday at Music City Con, Nashville's new product security conference, the "Information Security Middle Tennessee" report was developed by the Department of Information Systems and Analytics in MTSU's Jones College of Business in partnership with the Greater Nashville Technology Council. 

Report author Amy Harris, associate professor in information systems and analytics, moderated a panel of experts from area tech companies to discuss the report findings and what they mean for the region. 

"Securing digital assets requires workers who are capable of doing so, so we felt it important to understand how that need was translating into job requirements for regional tech workers," said Harris, who released a report late last year about the state of tech jobs overall in the Midstate.

"The study's findings provide evidence of growing demand for information security knowledge. Of the 38,000-plus postings for tech jobs in Middle Tennessee last year, approximately one-tenth referenced information security — that's 4,100 postings. While some of those were for occupations explicitly linked to security, many were not, which indicates that the need for information security capabilities spans many occupations."

The report — which includes breakdowns in areas such as most in-demand occupations, job titles, and skills — covers the Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin and Clarksville, TN-KY metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). You can find the full report at https://www.middletntechjobs.com/information-security-2019/.

"We all realize the increasing importance of security. Understanding the demand for each cyber-related tech worker across our major industries is vital to the success in growing our tech workforce," explained Brian Moyer, president and CEO of the Greater Nashville Technology Council. "We're grateful to Dr. Harris and the MTSU Department of Information Systems and Analytics for their continued efforts to shed light on the unique facets of region's tech community."

Other report highlights:

• The most in-demand occupation group for information security was Information Security Analysts with 25.6 percent of postings mapping to this occupation. It was followed by Network and Computer Systems Administrators and Software Developers, Applications, which mapped to 20.2 percent and 10.6 percent of the postings, respectively. 

• The most in-demand job title was Information Security Analysts, which appeared in 7.3 percent of job postings. Security Engineer was the second-ranked title, appearing in 4.7 percent of the postings. Database Administrators rounded out the top three, appearing in 3.8 percent of the postings.

• The hard skill appearing most frequently in the information security postings was Operating Systems (26.2 percent).  It was followed by SQL and Disaster Recovery, which appeared in 20.8 percent and 19.6 percent of postings, respectively.

• The top qualification was Certified Information Systems Security Professional, which appeared in 13.4 percent of the information security postings. It was followed by Certified Information Systems Auditor and Certified Information Security Manager, which appeared in 7.4 percent and 5.5 percent of postings, respectively.

This report is part of the Middle Tennessee Tech research program, which has the goal of providing industry, economic development, and academic audiences with data on the current state of the Midstate technology workforce. It is a partnership between MTSU's Department of Information Systems and Analytics and the Greater Nashville Technology Council.