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Today's Topics:
1. R U OK Day (Stephen Loosley)
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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2024 00:32:13 +0930
From: Stephen Loosley <[email protected]>
To: "link" <[email protected]>
Subject: [LINK] R U OK Day
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
CEO calls for authentic conversations on R U OK day as cybersecurity teams face
burnout under pressure
By David M Williams 10 September 2024
https://itwire.com/it-people-news/cio-trends/tesserent-ceo-calls-for-authentic-conversations-on-r-u-ok-day-as-cybersecurity-teams-face-burnout-under-pressure.html
Thursday 12 September 2024 is R U OK day, and this year cybersecurity and cloud
services provider Tesserent reminds us all to check in on our security teams
after another year with relentless cybercriminals.
R U OK day is a national day of action highlighting the importance of
meaningful conversations, held on the 2nd Thursday of September each year.
It's the initiative of R U OK?, an Australian non-profit suicide prevention
organisation. The key thrust of the organisation is, as you might guess, to
check in with people around you and ask if they are ok.
Some take a cynical view that the day is unauthentic and tokenistic. Yet, the
day's not for them. It's for the hidden people working and living amongst us
who put on a brave face but are facing struggles and turmoils. We wouldn't even
realise; they've become skilled at masking their pain. And even if your boss
asking, "R U Ok?" before getting onto the days agenda may not be totally
earnest, it's better to have a hundred of these than risk not having the
sincere conversations.
And this year Kurt Hansen, the CEO from one of the largest cybersecurity
companies in Australia, Tesserent, wants to encourage people to check in on the
wellbeing of your company Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and the
cybersecurity team.
Cyber attacks are relentless; iTWire reports regularly of breach after breach.
We report the ongoing research into cybersecurity showing ransomware is still
profitable, and that even nation states are getting in on the act for their own
political purposes.
Imagine owning a bricks-and-mortar store and finding at every moment, of every
hour, of every day, of every week that criminals are right at your doors and
windows testing every possible access point. The criminals are lined up behind
each other in a never-ending queue.
This is the reality for cybersecurity defenders, except the walls are
electronic not physical, and the bad guys aren't simply there in person but
from far-flung corners of the world.
We've seen high-profile destructive data breaches in Australia in recent years.
There are many we don't see because they are less prominent. However, there are
loads more we don't see because they didn't happen. Make no mistake, the
attackers tried, but were thwarted by an observant, prepared, and
sharp-thinking cybersecurity team.
When the attackers only need to get it right once to breach your defences, but
you have to get it right every single time to defend, it's no easy task.
The reality is that the cybersecurity experts in your business are facing
stress, pressure, and burnout in a highly intensive role. This is not good for
your organisation, and it's not good for Australia, if we can't attract and
retain the people we need in the battle against cybercrime.
Leigh McMullen, Vice-President and security analyst at Gartner, expects nearly
half of cyber security leaders will change jobs by the end of next year with
about a quarter of those leaving for entirely different roles. This is at a
time when AustCyber estimates the shortage of skilled information security
workers will reach almost 20,000 over the next two years in Australia.
A recent global survey from Hack The Box found mental fatigue, stress, and
burnout is running rampant, affecting 84% of workers within the cyber security
field.
A 2023 report by Splunk revealed that 79% of cyber security professionals
experienced burnout in the past year.
It doesn't have to be this way. Tesserent CEO Kurt Hansen wants to encourage us
all to check in on our frontline cybersecurity teams this R U OK day and ask
what we can do to help - and, importantly, listen to the response.
?Cybersecurity is a shared responsibility that encompasses every individual in
an organisation from the boardroom to the basement. It is not the sole
responsibility of one CISO or a small team of cyber security experts.
Organisations need to listen to the advice from their CISO about what they need
to do to protect the organisation, its people and customers, not just on R U OK
Day but all year round," Hansen said.
?Organisations also need to think more about how they can give incident
response teams, much needed downtime. It is important to rotate the team to
ensure that people don?t burn out if back-to-back incidents are occurring.
While you need to maintain a constant 24x7 watch, it is a shared
responsibility,? he says ..
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End of Link Digest, Vol 382, Issue 6
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