How to avoid burnout in your cybersecurity team?
While cyberattacks have been on the rise in recent years, one of the biggest threats to organizations’ cybersecurity is fatigue in the IT team, which leads to burnout syndrome. Gartner predicts that half of security managers will change jobs by 2025 due to industry-wide burnout.
A recent study reveals that 66% of cybersecurity professionals in Europe claim to have experienced fatigue during 2022. In addition, 51% say they have worked more than four hours extra a week above their scheduled hours.
In addition, 65% of CISOs stated that their ability to protect their organization is compromised by the overwhelming workload they face, and nearly 100% admitted that they needed additional resources.
Circumstances influencing burnout in cybersecurity teams
For Gartner, there is a clear lack of work-life balance for these professionals. This is mainly due to the fact that employees must be constantly alert to the possibility of cybersecurity attacks or incidents. Excessive preoccupation with work-related issues leads to employees experiencing symptoms of burnout.
Repetitive manual tasks such as system monitoring, incident detection and reporting are one of the main factors that produce chronic stress and exhaustion. The sheer volume of manual work causes team members to lose focus.
Examples of how these repetitive tasks can cause problems include:
-
Overlooking spam and malware-related anomalies after investigating countless IP addresses.
-
Ignoring alerts or assuming false positives due to receiving countless alerts or not having the time or visibility to alert affected groups allowing an infection to spread.
-
Neglecting system updates or patches due to high workload.
What can be done to lighten the team's workload?
There are specific solutions that should be implemented as soon as possible to mitigate the risks and potential consequences of overburdening the workforce.
End-user education
Educating employees helps avoid social engineering attacks such as phishing and business email compromise (BEC). With regular training and the use of multi-factor authentication, it is possible to reduce the number of threats and subsequent burden on security professionals.
Automation
Fifty-one percent of CISOs believe that automating repetitive, time-consuming and tiring manual tasks would alleviate some of the pressure on the IT team. It would help them stay focused on tasks that require more concentration and attention to detail.
Consolidation of security technologies
57% of CISOs agree that consolidating multiple security technologies on a single platform would reduce work stress. It is not uncommon to find enterprises or MSPs deploying disparate security solutions or that communication between teams is lacking. Frustration increases when tools are not integrated, as unnecessary extra steps may be required to complete a single task, thereby adding to an ever-growing list.
WatchGuard provides the Unified Security Platform which addresses this problem by replacing the patchwork approach to security that can lead to negative consequences for teams and security with a single platform. In addition to a holistic approach, this unified platform fosters a higher degree of coordination among people, processes and technologies, which delivers the benefits of stronger security and improved efficiency. Efficiency that today depends not only on the consolidation of solutions and processes, but also on automation.
Click here for more information about Automation Core framework
Automating processes has been proven to reduce staff hours related to network security management by up to 80% compared to traditional network security solutions. So, WatchGuard's Automation Core, integrated into its unified platform, eliminates wasted time and optimizes network performance while providing the highest resilience to cyberattacks. These two concepts, a consolidated security platform and automation, translate into a powerful solution to avoid burnout for your IT team and customers.
