A career in cybersecurity is dynamic. Every day is different, and the attack surface is always changing. Also, learning about cybersecurity only results in the realization of how much room for progress and the need for further education there really is.
The role cybersecurity teams have within organizations is hugely important. They protect everything that the company has built so far and prevent data breaches and hacking attempts that can damage both finances and reputation to the point of no return.
While rewarding, it also puts a lot of pressure on professionals that work long hours to test, improve, and defend the attack surface of your business — which can cause mental health struggles and a chain reaction of resignations.
As companies scale and add more security points to their security architecture, systems and networks are getting more challenging to manage.
There are platforms that are designed to help cybersecurity teams is Extended Security Posture Management.
What makes Extended Security Posture Management a helpful tool, and how can it help you keep talented members of your cybersecurity teams?
Burnout Pandemic in Cybersecurity
Working in cybersecurity is tough, almost as much as finding an entry-level job in it. Once recruited in this competitive field, there’s a realization that it doesn’t offer many opportunities for those needing further training.
Night shifts spent maintaining systems after new program releases or a system update, repetitive manual tasks, and imposter syndrome that creeps in become a regular part of the job.
The pandemic has been a harsh reminder of poor working conditions and caused many working in cybersecurity to leave their stable jobs.
Work productivity has been negatively impacted during the pandemic, and many cybersecurity professionals have considered leaving their jobs due to the toll it has on mental health.
The number of cyber-attacks drastically increased during the pandemic, adding even more tasks to their security to-do lists — contributing to prolonged stress has caused burnout for many IT teams.
When the stress of the global pandemic is paired with a lack of opportunities for professional growth and career development and an endless workload due to a lack of staff, it can affect the mental health of employees and cause them to leave their jobs.
How To Help and Keep Your Cybersecurity Teams?
Some actions you can take to keep the valued members of your cybersecurity teams are to:
- Enable mentorship opportunities and support that is crucial for entry-level positions — to show them they can grow in the field
- Check in with them and take surveys to question their experience of working in the company — to assess if the company meets their needs or if they struggle with mental health
- Give them tools that take a legwork from teams and cut down time spent on repetitive tasks — to make their workload manageable
Extended Security Posture Management
Extended Security Posture Management is a tool that can remedy improper management at work or long hours and night shifts. It’s an example of a tool that can make your team’s job easier by:
- Offering a comprehensive assessment of the system by using various tools to evaluate the strength of the security.
- Automating various solutions that scan and test attack surfaces to mitigate common threats in time.
- Helping teams that consist of members with varying skill levels and management styles.
- Generate reports that are the result of the continual scanning and analysis of the attack surface.
Evaluation of the system includes testing the network, security points, and the teams themselves to discover any vulnerabilities. For companies with complex systems, it can be challenging to discover threats and weaknesses before they turn into incidents.
What’s more, keeping up with the latest techniques and methods that hackers have used to attack organizations can be difficult.
Nevertheless, teams must defend their organization from new threats for which there might not yet be an elegant solution — compared to common hacking such as phishing and malware that can be detected and mitigated with anti-malware and email filters.
Extended Security Posture Management is linked with the MITRE ATT&CK Framework, a library that describes the latest hacking attempts and methods.
The management platform is comprehensive, and it has many tools in one — such as Breach and Attack Simulation which simulates attacks to test the network and Attack Surface Management scouring the web for leaked data of the company.
After testing of the network, the platform gives a report that highlights only the high-risk flaws and threats.
In the sea of alerts, it’s getting difficult for teams to discern real threats from false alerts — both for beginners that may not recognize them or for established members of the teams that might brush them off as false positives.
Final Word
Extended Security Posture Management isn’t a magical tool that can solve the issue of the rising number of cyber experts that are leaving the field — especially if at the heart of the real issue is poor management, mental health issues, or unclear career development path.
Also, the reality of these situations is going to be vastly different from one company to another. Organizations differ depending on the learning and mentorship opportunities they offer, as well as opportunities to advance in the field.
However, Extended Security Posture Management is a step forward in improving the working conditions of cybersecurity professionals.
It helps them navigate different management styles and varying skills that members bring to the team, but also saves time that would be spent on manual, repetitive tasks — a combination that creates more time for mentorship and focus on more pressing tasks.
Therefore, for overworked and understaffed teams that need all the help they can get, Extended Security Posture Management can help your cybersecurity in a crucial area — as being a useful tool for cybersecurity management.
It automates repetitive and time-consuming tasks and offers multiple tools for mitigation and testing on a single platform.
Harry Wilson
Tags: Attack Surface, Cybersecurity Management, Extended Security Posture Management
