"Harsh economic times force many organisations to examine new, more cost-effective ways of accomplishing their goals. This is helping to enrich the career choices in information security, with more and more new business processes becoming dependent on a stable and secure online world," said ISC(2)'s managing director, John Colley.

Clearly, how one interprets the results depends on what is seen as the norm. IT has come to be viewed as a high-paid sector, generally one with a supply problem in finding the right skills at the right time. On that basis, any retrenchment could look traumatic. But compared to most other sectors - publishing and banking for instance - these results are positive.

ISC(2) organises a range of its own not-for-profit security qualifications.