Understaffed but still delivering -- the reality of cybersecurity teams
A new survey of over 900 security decision makers across the US, Europe and Australia, finds 60 percent of security teams are small, with fewer than 10 members. But despite their size, 72 percent report taking on more work over the past year, and an impressive 88 percent are meeting or exceeding their goals.
The study, carried out by IDC for AI-powered workflow company Tines, also finds security leaders are bullish about AI with 98 percent embracing it and a mere five percent believing AI will replace their job outright.
There are concerns, however, 33 percent of respondents are worried about the time required to train their teams on AI capabilities, while 27 percent cite compliance as a key blocker. Other hurdles include AI hallucinations (26 percent), secure AI adoption (25 percent), and slower-than-expected implementation (20 percent).
"Challenges in the cybersecurity industry are ever present and ever changing," says Matt Muller, field CISO at Tines. "Security professionals, who already face an unprecedented threat landscape in 2025, are met with the daunting task to integrate AI across their workflows. Our research shows that security teams are stepping up.. However, organizations must take a flexible approach to automation and AI to ensure it remains secure and effective."
Although a third of respondents say they are satisfied with their team's tools many see potential for improvement. Most security teams (55 percent) typically manage 20 to 49 tools, while 23 percent use fewer than 20, and 22 percent use 50 to 99. Regardless of the number of tools in use 24 percent of respondents struggle with poor integration, while 35 percent feel their stack lacks key functionality.
Among other findings, if security leaders gained time through automation or AI 43 percent say they would use it to focus more on security policy development, 42 percent on training and development, and 38 percent on incident response planning
Most (83 percent) of security leaders report having a healthy work-life balance, but even so only 72 percent say they can perform their jobs without working extended hours, suggesting that such sacrifices have become an accepted part of the role for many.
You can get the full white paper from the Tines site and there will be a webinar to discuss the findings on March 26th at 11am ET.
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