Lack Of Highly Skilled Staff Threatens Security Automation

IT security automation is increasing across the world at a faster pace than ever, often creating anxiety among employees. However, the rise of automation will threaten the job market, organizations now feel that automation technologies will offer the potential to promote job security for highly skilled staff, while strengthening cybersecurity defenses, according to a new study. But the catch here is the cyber space continues to be threatened by shortage of highly skilled staff and this may prove to be detrimental to automation security on the whole.

the study report titled: “Staffing the IT Security Function in the Age of Automation”, conducted jointly by Ponemon Institute and DomainTools surveyed more than 1,400 security professionals across the Asia Pacific, US, and the UK indicated a shortage of cybersecurity staff across geographical regions (78% of all respondents admitted their teams are understaffed).

According to respondents, automation will provide a partial solution to the problem, relieving cybersecurity professionals of time-consuming and non-cost-effective tasks, such as malware analysis, which is either already automated (50%), or is planned to become so in the next three years (56%).

Only 35% of respondents, however, think that automation will reduce the headcount of their cybersecurity function: 40% even expect an increased need for hires with more advanced technical skills.

“Within just one year, the perspective around adoption of automated technologies has notably shifted among cybersecurity professionals,” said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute. “Contrary to the popular belief that the rise of automation will threaten the job market, organizations now feel these technologies will help ease the current strain on resources, and offer the potential to promote job security for highly skilled staff, while strengthening cybersecurity defenses.”

UK and US respondents were much more confident that automation will improve their cybersecurity staff’s ability to do their job (59% and 65% of respondents, respectively) than APAC respondents (48%), who were also more likely to distrust AI as a cybersecurity tool (37% of respondents, compared to 31% in the UK and 24% in the US).

Asia Pacific ahead in cybersecurity skills availability 

Skills shortages also seemed to be lower in the APAC region (67%) compared to the UK (70%) and the US (78%), perhaps partially explaining the different level of reliance and trust on automation and AI across regions.

At the same time, the survey reported that 40% of respondents expect an increased need for hires with more advanced technical skills, aligning especially in Asia Pacific where governments and educational institutions are already accelerating specialized cybersecurity programs and initiatives, such as the ASEAN-Singapore Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence announced during the ASEAN Ministerial Conference on Cybersecurity (AMCC) in September 2018, where ASEAN nations are adopting a rules-based approach to regional cybersecurity frameworks. ASEAN, or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a ten-nation group comprised of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Of those respondents who said AI is trusted as a security tool in their organizations, the majority listed staff shortages as the main reason why their enterprise has adopted the solution (53%).

“The results of the survey reveal that, overall, cybersecurity professionals are confident that automation will make their workload more manageable and will increase the accuracy of certain tasks, without jeopardizing their job security,” says Corin Imai, senior security advisor at DomainTools. “Although there are geographical differences in the level of confidence placed in AI and automation as cybersecurity tools, the reasons that motivate their adoption – relieving overworked teams, preventing downtime and business disruptions, reducing threats created by operating in the global digital economy, etc. – seem to be consistent across regions, suggesting that goals and expectations are aligned for organizations across the globe.”