Scarcity of Security Pros Advances Automation

Scarcity of Security Pros Advances Automation

Organizations are turning to security automation to cope with a shortage of qualified security professionals and heavy reliance on manual security.

98% of the IT professionals surveyed said they are challenged by incident response capabilities, and 71% claim that IR has become more difficult during the past two years.

Monitoring processes from end to end: 47%, Keeping up with the volume of threat intelligence: 46%, Keeping up with the volume of security alerts: 43%

The security skills gap, combined with heavy reliance on manual resources, exacerbates IR challenges. 91% of respondents said IR efficiency and effectiveness are limited by the staff time and effort required of manual processes.

91% of respondents are actively trying to increase the size of their IR staff.

62% of the respondents have already taken action to automate and/or orchestrate IR processes. Another 35% are either engaged in a project or plan to initiate one within 18 months.

The shift to automated and orchestrated IR is just beginning. Only 32% of respondents categorize their initiatives as at a mature stage.

Automating data collection: 50%, Reducing human error: 49%, Improving ability to triage incidents: 47%

91% of respondents said their organization’s spending on IR will increase over the next two years, and 40% said spending will increase significantly.

50% plan to improve the alignment of IR and IT governance processes; 43% expect to test their IR processes more often; and 38% plan to hire more incident response personnel.

Start small by setting realistic short-and long-term goals. Define metrics, measure progress and make corrections along the way. Push for increased collaboration between CIOs and IT operations managers. Focus less on resource volume and more on technology integration. Look to vendors for automation, while optimizing internal IR resources.