Cybersecurity burnout could lead to workers quitting

Cybersecurity teams are suffering from the economic squeeze with 63 percent of US security professionals having their department's budget cut in 2023 according to research from Pentest as a Service (PtaaS) company Cobalt.

Of those who encountered layoffs or budget cuts, almost all US (95 percent) and EMEA (84 percent) professionals say their role has changed. This has caused many in the US to feel burnt out (61 percent), more than those in EMEA (29 percent).

Burnout is increasing among professionals, with 50 percent of US respondents threatening to quit their jobs if these feelings go unaddressed. Only 20 percent of EMEA respondents say the same though.

Lack of resources is leading to a backlog of unaddressed vulnerabilities. 73 percent of US respondents admit they struggle to monitor and respond to vulnerabilities compared to EMEA where 58 percent report the same issue. This is leading leading many to look for third-party assistance, though outsourcing cybersecurity tasks to third-party vendors is more common in the US (74 percent) than EMEA (48 percent).

Most security vulnerabilities are related to server security misconfigurations according to 40 percent) of US respondents. Other vulnerabilities include cross-site scripting (12 percent), sensitive data exposure (10 percent), broken access control (10 percent) and authentication and sessions (nine percent).

"Cobalt is committed to helping security teams effectively manage their daily operations and efficiently run pentests in an evolving threat landscape," says Eric Brinkman, chief product officer at Cobalt. "Through our research and by listening to our enterprise customers, we know they continue to struggle with shifting demands. Our expanded suite of offerings equips leaders with deeper insights into reporting, spotlights common vulnerabilities as well as solutions to support their teams."

The State of Pentesting Report 2023 is available from the Cobalt site.

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