Most security pros have considered quitting due to a lack of resources

Companies are suffering from a lack of resources, both in terms of people and technology (79 percent), and 72 percent have considered leaving their jobs for this reason, Censornet research reveals.

Security professionals believe their jobs and the overall security of their organizations would benefit from an autonomous security solution that could automatically react to and prevent attacks.

More technology is harming cybersecurity

The survey found that security professionals are not being helped by their security solutions. Sixty-five percent want more technology but the average number of security products used is already 33 and 57 percent reported they are suffering from alert overload.

What’s more, ineffective cybersecurity technology was the joint second threat facing organizations, alongside unexpected/new cybersecurity threats such as new ransomware (both 47 percent). It was only beaten by cybersecurity staff shortages (50 percent). This makes bad technology a higher concern than human error (40 percent) and insufficient budget (41 percent).

Ed Macnair, CEO, Censornet commented: “The skills shortage is considered the greatest cyber security risk to organizations, and it’s no secret that companies of all sizes have been having a hard time finding qualified personnel to manage their often-overwhelmed security operations.

“We can hardly be surprised that 74 percent of cybersecurity professionals describe themselves as “very busy”, but it is worrying that technology isn’t yet helping to solve the problem. In fact, it could be making it worse. The market has become saturated with point products – which is increasing cost and complexity and, as a consequence, reducing how effective they are.”

Professionals want autonomous security solutions

While point products are considered a risk, an overwhelming 86 percent think their organization would benefit from autonomous security products, defined by Censornet as “a self-governing security system that operates across traditionally isolated products and autonomously reacts to protect against and prevent attacks from a wide range of sources, in real-time”.

The cybersecurity community is already converted to the benefits of autonomous technology. Seventy-eight percent said they’d trust an autonomous solution and, on average, it is believed that 58 percent of threats will be dealt with automatically in five years’ time.

Professionals believe the top benefits benefits of autonomous cyber security will be improved response and prevention (66 percent) and freeing up analysts to focus on bigger picture priorities (52 percent). When asked what would make their work life happier, more time to focus on value add activity (45 percent) only lost out to the predictable answers of a higher wage (74 percent) and less stress (53 percent).