Nathan Cochrane and Adam Turner look at who's hot and who's not among IT professionals.  

In a post-September 11 world, security expertise is in short supply, as witnessed by the Federal Government's attempts to fast-track migration of computer security professionals. 

In the annual 2002 migration occupations in-demand list (MODL), published by the departments of Immigration and Employment and Workplace Relations, a third of the computer professional jobs listed are in security fields. And for the first time, the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification is listed, alongside firewall and Internet security, Java security, and e-commerce security specialties. 

The CISSP examination consists of 250 multiple-choice questions, covering topics such as access control systems, cryptography and security management practices. 

It is is administered by the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC2) and has been available for more than a decade. 

Despite its reputation as a "high-calibre" qualification, there is currently little demand for CISSP certification in Australia, says security company eSign's chief technology officer Iain Waters. 

"No one really knows about it - it's pretty insular to North America but it is a pretty high-calibre type of qualification to have," Waters says. 

"Now it's on the list, I think you'll start to see that serious players in the market will start asking for it. It's got a rather extensive career-pathing capability." 

The list of jobs on the MODL has shrunk to a dozen, from a high of 26 last year, mostly centred on big-ticket e-business implementations and operating systems expertise, and is expected to fall to just a handful in the next few weeks. 

Since 1999, when only five specialties were listed, C++ programming, SAP and Java have proved most in demand, making it on to the list each year. 

Peoplesoft, Java and SQL Server have been stalwarts each of the past three years. However, Visual Basic, Lotus Notes (often used in government), advanced Web design and Linux have fallen out of favour. 

Cuts to the MODL come amid broader criticism of the Federal Government's skills-in-demand visa system. 

Class 457 Business Long Stay temporary visas have the "potential to adversely affect work opportunities for Australian resident computer professionals", according to a report by Australian labour expert Bob Kinnaird. 

Applications for class 457 visas do not face the same scrutiny as visa applications. Efforts were not made to establish if Australia's unemployed computer professionals could have filled the jobs taken by the 4500 to 6600 ICT workers on class 457 visas, says Kinnaird.