The great resignation and its expected impact on cybersecurity

It’s a known fact that many organizations are being hit with an epic number of cybersecurity attacks from all directions, both domestic and abroad. This puts a tremendous amount of stress on the cybersecurity processes and the people working behind the scenes to protect the organization’s infrastructure environment. Cybersecurity has been experiencing a ripple effect. This includes skill gaps, shortage of various resources, and lack of company investment to protect the network while still requiring the infrastructure assets are properly protected.

For many organizations, essential security-related decisions are being delayed while the companies are still trying to grow their businesses, attract customers and take on the emerging threat of never-ending cyber-attacks. The lack of preparedness to handle these attacks has resulted in the overall diminishing cyber hygiene which affects the entire organization. This expected great resignation is not limited just to mid-level employees; many CEOs have decided to leave their corporate positions due to ongoing issues. The result is security teams being faced with tremendous challenges to keep their environment safe. And while preparation is being delayed, the employees being forced to handle these cybersecurity problems are facing a significant amount of stress and work burnout.

Another key factor that plays into this is the large skill gaps these employees face daily due to their very limited experience in being able to protect, diagnose, and formulate different remediation efforts to protect the organization’s data. Because companies are expecting the great resignation to continue, many companies are being forced to provide earnings and stock dividends as incentives for employment. Additional enticements may include sizable bonuses as well as expanded health care coverage.

Many of the top CEOs have already stated the biggest trick organizations are missing is trying to narrow the cybersecurity skills gap; that remains an ongoing struggle. For example, “Cybersecurity services company... Bridewell reports that 68% of leaders say it has become harder to recruit the right people to secure and monitor systems over the past 12 months.” Because of the ever-emerging threat of cyber-attacks, it’s critical that organizations hire individuals with the proper cybersecurity skill sets. This pertains to knowledge and awareness to detect the criticality of the attack, identify possible solutions quickly and accurately, perform various gap analyses, and ensure all corporate management is kept up to date on the organization’s security posture.

Companies simply can’t afford to lose or go without well-qualified cybersecurity talent.