New research has revealed 83 percent of IT security professionals feel more overworked going into 2020 than they were at the beginning of 2019, according to a Tripwire survey. The research, which was in partnership with Dimensional Research, examined how organisations and security pros are coping under the strains of the skills gap.
Having surveyed 342 IT security professionals it was also found that 82 percent of security pros felt that their teams were understaffed. To make matters even worse, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find skilled workers to increase the headcount in a team.
Tim Erlin, vice president of product management and strategy at Tripwire, is well aware of these cybersecurity staffing difficulties for organisations, stating “It’s getting harder and harder for organisations to fill open positions on their security teams.”
“Larger organisations, which you might assume have more resources, are experiencing the skills gap issue even more acutely than smaller organisations. It’s a challenge to hire the right skill sets – they keep changing along with security, which is always evolving. Nearly all of those we surveyed said the skills required to be a great security professional have changed over the past few years.”
There is also the concern from organisations over the wellbeing and mental state of cybersecurity professionals. The survey revealed that 93 percent had expressed at least some interest in understanding wellness issues for the cybersecurity industry. However, only 19% stated their companies provide resources for managing the stress associated with the specific issues of IT security. Is it therefore high time for CISO’s and enterprises to do more to provide for their security teams?
Erlin added: “CISOs should be focusing on high-level strategy, but because their teams are understaffed and have an overwhelming volume of work on their desks, they may have to get involved in daily operations if they aren’t already. To solve the problems caused by skills gap issues, training and managed services are both good approaches. By partnering with providers, organisations can free themselves from operational work and gain insights that will help inform decisions. And because recruiting and training aren’t always possible, managed services provide businesses a way to augment their teams.”
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