Specialised information security manpower will become a major requirement for the Indian IT sector with the demand for such professionals projected to rise to 77,000 in 2008 from 18,000 at present, Nasscom said. 

"According to IDC estimates, the demand for IS professionals is around 18,000 in India and over 60,000 worldwide. This figure is expected to jump to 77,000 in India and 188,000 globally by 2008," it said.

Thus the demand for such professionals which today accounts for about 3 per cent of the overall IT workforce demand, will rise to around 5 to 6 per cent by 2008, Nasscom said.

"While the IS market is clearly on an upswing, there is a growing scarcity of professionals that can develop and implement solutions for this segment to which the Indian IT sector must gear up," it said.

A study last year by JobsAhead and Nasscom also shows that in the United States alone, there will be a shortfall of around 25,000 to 50,000 IS professionals over the next few years and based on skills data, less than 2,500 workers have specific IS skills which represent a miniscule 0.5 per cent of the IT workforce.

"Less than 10,000 professionals have a working knowledge of IS and at this rate by 2008, there will be a shortfall of over 100,000 IS professionals globally," Nasscom said.

At a global level, the demand for IS services was around $8 billion in 2001, Nasscom said quoting IDC figures and added the market was expected to grow to $23.6 billion by 2006.

Asia Pacific will be the fastest growing region in the world for security products as opposed to North America and Western Europe at a CAGR of 32 per cent from 2000 to 2005, Nasscom said. 

The market is significant both outside and inside India.

In India there is growing recognition among leading companies that security solutions were needed to prevent future disasters.

Within India segments like authentication, web access management and developer solutions were creating fresh potential for Indian software players addressing the segment.

While authentication is required to save mission-critical data assets, web access management would enable companies to have secured access to web based applications and services.