Investment in cybersecurity is the fastest-growing priority of IT leaders — up 23% year over year — as cybercrime threats reach an all-time high, according to the 2018 Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey released today. Managing operational risk and compliance has also become a significantly increased priority, up 12% from last year’s survey.

And while big data/analytics remained the most in-demand skill for the fourth consecutive year at 46%, up from 48% in 2017, the survey found the skill with the largest year-over-year change is “security and resilience” with a 25% increase.

Overall, the skills shortage continues with 65% of respondents reporting that a lack of talent is holding back their strategies, the highest recorded in the survey since 2008. In response, 67% plan to use automation to remove the need for additional headcount and 46% plan to use outsourcing to access skills.

The research also found more optimism about increasing headcount compared to last year. Almost half of the participants, 47%, expect headcount to increase this year, up from 44% in the 2017 survey; 13% expect headcount to decrease, down from 16% last year.

The survey included 3,958 IT leaders and was conducted between Dec. 20, 2017, and April 3, 2018, across 84 countries.