{
 "edition": "004",
 "date": "2026-08-04",
 "claim": "There are 4.8 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs worldwide.",
 "verdict": "Unsupported",
 "score": 82,
 "components": [
  {
   "name": "Source quality",
   "score": 13,
   "note": "Rubric 10 to 14: self-published research with a disclosed methodology. The withdrawal of the metric is scored under Replication and Drift, not here."
  },
  {
   "name": "Sample and method",
   "score": 15,
   "note": "Rubric 15 to 17: the gap was modeled from OECD and BLS baselines plus what a self-selected panel said it needed, then presented as a measurement. The survey underneath it is large and its method is disclosed, which keeps it at the bottom of the band."
  },
  {
   "name": "Independence",
   "score": 16,
   "note": "Rubric 15 to 17: published by a certification body that sells the credentials positioned as the remedy. Not its primary marketing asset, so not the top band."
  },
  {
   "name": "Replication",
   "score": 19,
   "note": "Rubric 18 to 20: never independently reproduced, and the original publisher has stopped standing behind it. That is the definition of the top band."
  },
  {
   "name": "Drift",
   "score": 19,
   "note": "Rubric 18 to 20: quoted after the source was superseded, and quoted as job openings when it measured perceived staffing need."
  }
 ],
 "call": "The 2026 edition of this study, expected around December 2026, will again contain no global workforce gap estimate, and the 4.8 million figure will still be in circulation as though it did.",
 "resolves": "January 2027",
 "resolution_criteria": "Resolves HELD if the 2026 ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study, on publication, contains no global workforce gap figure. Resolves MISSED if it publishes one, of any size. Resolves VOID if no 2026 study is published by January 31, 2027.",
 "source": {
  "title": "2025 ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study",
  "publisher": "ISC2",
  "date": "December 4, 2025",
  "url": "https://www.isc2.org/Insights/2025/12/2025-ISC2-Cybersecurity-Workforce-Study"
 },
 "scored_by": "Mark Lynd",
 "url": "https://thehypeindex.com/edition/004-48-million-unfilled-cybersecurity-jobs/",
 "method": "https://thehypeindex.com/method/",
 "rubric_version": "v1.0",
 "rubric_effective": "July 26, 2026",
 "corrections": [
  {
   "date": "July 26, 2026",
   "text": "Source quality lowered from 15 to 13. The 15 to 17 band is for research with no disclosed methodology, and the 2024 study disclosed its own. Total moved from 81 to 79 and the verdict from Unsupported to Overstated, at the top of that band. The withdrawal of the metric is still scored at the top band on both Replication and Drift, where it belongs."
  },
  {
   "date": "July 26, 2026",
   "text": "Three fixes after review. The lede said the metric had been dropped nineteen months ago, which matched no date on the page; it was last published October 23, 2024 and omitted from the December 4, 2025 study. One sentence still argued for the pre-correction verdict and has been rewritten. Sample and method moved from 12 to 15, because the rubric puts a modeled estimate presented as a measurement at 15 to 17 and that is what the gap figure is. Total moved from 79 to 82, which returns the verdict to Unsupported."
  },
  {
   "date": "July 26, 2026",
   "text": "A second sentence still described the pre-correction verdict, saying this edition sat at the top of the Overstated band. The verdict is Unsupported at 82. Corrected. This is the second time residue from that rescore survived a pass, which is the argument for logging changes rather than trusting a reread."
  },
  {
   "date": "July 26, 2026",
   "text": "Sourcing corrected against our own verification rule. The 4.8 million gap, the 5.5 million workforce and the 0.1% growth figure were cited to an ISC2 commentary article rather than to the 2024 study where they originate. The study is now linked as the primary and the commentary is labelled secondary, which is where the artistic-licence quotation actually comes from. No score changed."
  }
 ],
 "words": 896,
 "reading_minutes": 4,
 "published_web": "2026-07-26",
 "emailed": "2026-08-04"
}