Around 74 percent of Security Operations Centre teams are dealing with cyber-related breaches or expect to do so within a year, according to a new survey done by cyber security solutions provider Trend Micro.
The results from the new study which revealed that Security Operation Centre (SOC) and IT firms are suffering from high levels of stress outside of the working day with alert overload.
The study surveyed 2,303 IT security and SOC decision-makers in 21 countries.
This includes 85 percent of leaders who run SOC teams and 15 percent of those who manage SecOps from within their IT security team. The respondents come from companies with more than 250 employees.
Teams dealing with increasing complexity
About 70 per cent of respondents say their home lives are being emotionally impacted by their work managing IT threat alerts.
Around 51 per cent feel their team is being overwhelmed by the volume of alerts and 55 per cent admit that they aren’t entirely confident in their ability to prioritize and respond to them.
Therefore teams are spending as much as 27 per cent of their time dealing with false positives.
The report further added that these findings are supported by a recent Forrester study, which found that “security teams are heavily understaffed when it comes to incident response, even as they face more attacks.
Security operations centers (SOCs) need a more effective method of detection and response; thus, XDR takes a dramatically different approach to other tools on the market today.”
Outside of work, the high volumes of alerts leave many SOC managers unable to switch off or relax, and irritable with friends and family.
43 percent of individuals inside work, occasionally or frequently turn off alerts, 43 percent walk away from their computer, 50 per cent hope another team member will step in, 40 per cent ignore what is coming in entirely.
“We’re used to cybersecurity being described in terms of people, process and technology.
All too often, though, people are portrayed as a vulnerability rather than an asset, and technical defenses are prioritized over human resilience. It’s high time we renewed our investment in our human security assets.
That means looking after our colleagues and teams, and ensuring they have tools that allow them to focus on what humans do best,” said Dr. Victoria Baines, Cybersecurity Researcher and Author.
74 percent of respondents are already dealing with a breach or expecting one within the year, and the estimated average cost per breach is USD$235,000, the consequences of such actions could be disastrous, the report pointed out.
“SOC team members play a crucial role on the cyber frontline, managing and responding to threat alerts to keep their organisations safe from potentially catastrophic breaches. But as this research shows, that pressure sometimes comes at an enormous personal cost.
To avoid losing their best people to burnout, organisations must look to more sophisticated threat detection and response platforms that can intelligently correlate and prioritize alerts.
This will not only improve overall protection but also enhance analyst productivity and job satisfaction levels,” said Bharat Mistry, Technical Director, Trend Micro.
27th October 2021
This event will discuss how security leaders are adopting the challenges to reduce data breaches and threat intelligence mechanisms along with a zero trust architecture and adopting best practices in building a new era in the cybersecurity space leading to a strong DC preventing private information from being exposed. Register for free now.
