"Full employment is both good and bad news for the profession. On the one hand, it offers people with the right qualifications, experience and skills, opportunities for career advancement, but on the other, it causes excessively high salary expectations," said Colley.

"Short-staffed teams take on extra workload and stress; there is little time for professional development, and the risk of employees taking on tasks and responsibilities that may not be at par with their abilities rises."

(ISC)2 also predicts that the information security workforce will nearly double by 2015.

The solution to the skills crisis, claims Colley, is to develop a healthy job market for the profession with support for both young people to move into the field and the hiring managers who at the moment have no way of identifying aptitude in undeveloped talent.

Colley said: "We are seeing a lot of talk about the skills gap and many efforts to raise interest in the opportunities. But what are we doing with these people once we get their interest? There isn't at the moment the support mechanism to get them working productively.