More than half of the cybersecurity professionals in the United States say they’re impacted by burnout due to high demand and workloads. While the need for highly skilled cybersecurity professionals has skyrocketed as the digital landscape becomes increasingly complex and vulnerable to threats, a significant number of security professionals experience high levels of burnout when trying to fulfill daily security objectives set by their Security Operations Center (SOC) teams.
Security Professional On-The-Job Challenges
Security professionals find great satisfaction in defending organizations from cyber threats, safeguarding sensitive data and ensuring the security of critical infrastructure. However, today’s on-the-job challenges are impacting the work-life balance and overall well-being of SOC teams, and the lack of resources, including budget, people, time and effective tools is resulting in more turnover and talent shortages.
- High workloads have become overwhelming, leaving cyber security professionals with limited time and resources to dive deep into technical projects.
- Tight budgets pose a hindrance to acquiring the necessary tools, technologies and training needed to combat rapidly evolving cyber threats.
- Skills shortages put immense pressure on existing professionals and limit cybersecurity teams in the areas of experimentation and innovation. And a primary area of concern is the increased level of error with security professionals who are experiencing stress and burnout and the organization’s team members who have not fully embraced cybersecurity applications.
Even with these challenges, cybersecurity professionals’ commitment stems from their genuine desire to protect businesses, individuals and society at large from the devastating consequences of cybercrime.
Employee Wellness and Retention
The well-being of cybersecurity professionals is critical to the health and functionality of an organization. Employers and organizations have a responsibility to support their cybersecurity employees and organizational employees by offering mentorship programs, training opportunities and digital tools and resources to expand their skills. Additionally, fostering a culture that prioritizes work-life balance, mental health and stress management will contribute to the overall well-being of the workforce to help retain top talent and reduce employee turnover.
Improving wellbeing and mental health in cybersecurity teams involves a mix of elements, including these organizational changes.
- Cultural Change — To foster cultural change in the adoption and application of cybersecurity applications, communicate to workers in messaging they understand using words like “protect” and “our data”.
- Smart Recruiting — Use smart technology to recruit such as recruiting platforms that go beyond applicant tracking systems.
- Sensible technology implementation — Protect digital information using proven cybersecurity applications.
SOC Team Solutions
To address these growing challenges, security operations teams (SOCs) are actively working towards developing SOC solutions. These solutions will help ease workloads and decrease stress levels for cybersecurity professionals.
- Effective Automation — Encourage adoption of current automation and automate routine tasks to streamline processes and achieve operational efficiencies.
- Leverage AI for Threat Detection — Look for ways to automate more complex areas such as intelligence analysis, threat hunting and high impact tasks like researching new tools and developing advanced detection rules.
- Streamline Security Operations — Use smart workflows to help run mission-critical tasks to help achieve greater productivity at scale.
With greater automation and intelligence-driven systems, cyber professionals can focus their efforts on high-impact work, such as threat hunting, incident response and proactive security measures.
While many cybersecurity professionals in the United States face significant challenges that impede their pursuit of high-impact work, their passion for their field remains strong. Though workloads, budgets and skills shortages persist, the emergence of SOC solutions, coupled with a focus on professional well-being helps empower cybersecurity professionals to fulfill their passion for high-impact work and fortifies the cybersecurity landscape for safer digital businesses.