A new survey by Farsight Security, Inc., has found that over half (57%) of IT security professionals work weekends and, on average, nearly a third (29%) work ten hours a day. Despite the overtime, nearly all (97%) said that they still find their job rewarding and plan to stay in security (85%).
The respondents’ enthusiasm for their job and their intent to stay is reassuring considering the current cybersecurity skills shortage, and the rising financial implications of cybercrime on both organizations and individuals. Recently, (ISC)² found that the “cybersecurity workforce gap is on pace to hit 1.8 million by 2022.”
“Securing the Internet, our businesses and national infrastructure is one of the world’s most critical challenges. Cybersecurity professionals work hard behind the scenes to avert disasters that we rarely hear about, and we need more like them,” said Dr. Paul Vixie, CEO, Cofounder and Chairman of Farsight Security, Inc. “At Farsight, we’re committed to delivering solutions that help cybersecurity teams quickly expedite their investigations; especially helping those that are shorthanded and under pressure. We are committed to helping the security industry attract and retain talented professionals.”
There is no doubt that cybersecurity requires staff to work overtime. In addition to working on weekends, more than half (51%) of respondents said that they had missed an important event due to a security related incident at work more than once.
The survey of 360 information security professionals was conducted at Infosecurity Europe 2017 conference which took place June 6-8, 2017, at the Olympia Conference Centre in London.
