Stress, burnout raise turnovers among cyber professionals

One-in-three cybersecurity professionals are mulling departing their positions as a result of stress and burnout stemming from increased cybercrime prevalence and media coverage surrounding cybersecurity incidents, ZDNET reports. Ransomware attacks were cited by 54% of respondents to have adversely affected their mental health, while 56% noted the escalating stress associated with their roles every year, according to a Mimecast survey. More burnout-related absences after cyberattacks have also been reported by one-third of security teams, while 34% of cybersecurity leaders noted that IT staff recruitment following attacks has been challenging. The findings also showed that up-to-date security systems and improved IT security training have been named as the key resources needed by companies in bolstering their cyber defenses. "[C]ompanies need to train and upskill their workforce by offering bespoke training. In parallel to training their staff, AI can help optimize systems to alleviate some of the strain on tech teams. As new cyber threats are constantly emerging, training such as this needs to be a continual process and should be more commonplace for all employees, students, and trainees," said Mimecast EMEA Field Chief Technology Officer Johan Dreyer.