Because of the staggering average cost of $4.35 million per data breach, security analysts are under continual pressure to safeguard valuable data assets. Apparently, they are frequently the ones who must shoulder the responsibility when things go wrong. These variables make a mental health catastrophe inevitable.
The field of cybersecurity is indeed one in which mistakes may have severe consequences.
Survey Results
Promon, an application security company, has announced the findings of a poll it conducted with 311 participants of this year's Black Hat Europe event, as reported by VentureBeat.
About 66% of the respondents said they suffered burnout this year. Meanwhile, 51% of these individuals stated they regularly put in more than four extra hours above their normal workweek.
More than 50% of respondents labeled workload the most stressful aspect of their jobs. This is followed by 19% who cited management problems, 12% who named poor relationships with coworkers, and 11% who mentioned a lack of access to necessary resources.
The percentage of those stressed about being underpaid was surprisingly low, at only 7%.
The report emphasizes that in order to keep up with threat actors, cybersecurity analysts are required to handle an untenable workload. In return, this only leads to increased stress and burnout.
The Blame Culture (That Has to Stop)
Along with the widening gap in cyber warfare, this study comes at a time when companies are increasingly pointing fingers at specific persons or groups for security lapses, said VentureBeat.
In a survey conducted with security professionals, 88% said they feel there is at least some degree of blame culture in the field, with 38% in the US saying it is heavily widespread.
Given the high stakes for security experts in the event of a breach, it is not surprising that many of them burn the midnight oil to keep their companies secure. And unfortunately, it has a negative impact on their mental health.
A Call to Action
Promon's VP of engineering, Jan Vidar Krey, stated at Black Hat Europe that the company's findings shed light on some of the main shortcomings we are witnessing in the cybersecurity sector.
"It's no secret that working in this industry is tough and, for many, it requires a lot of hard work and often overtime as well."
Security teams in today's corporations are under a lot of stress. Therefore CISOs and other senior executives should do more to back up the analysts working in the trenches.
In light of the fact that these positions typically come with inherent stress, Promon's Krey argues that companies should do more to assist their workers from the get-go and make sure they know where to turn if things get unbearable.
Companies should help their cybersecurity employees find a better work-life balance and adopt a "security-first" mentality in which everyone in the company, not just the analysts, is responsible for the network's safety.
