Trend Micro Incorporated, a provider of cybersecurity solutions, has revealed that the ongoing and often detrimental shortage of cybersecurity talent has led most organisations to turn outward for help
The survey added that this is most often seen in automating technology, increasing training programmes, and outsourcing detection and prevention.
Regardless of their size, organisations share a common challenge: IT security teams are understaffed and over-extended. The number of security alerts, the challenge of what to prioritise, and the lack of expertise can be overwhelming and introduce risk.
The research, which surveyed 1,125 IT decision-makers worldwide, shows that 69 per cent of organisations agreed that automating cybersecurity tasks using Artificial Intelligence (AI) would reduce the impact of lack of security talent. This comes after last year’s 64 per cent of organisations experienced increased cyber threats.
Ian Heritage, a cybersecurity architect at Trend Micro, said, “Protecting the enterprise from cyber threats is like a game of whack-a-mole. Not only do IT and security teams have to maintain constant vigilance on their cyber defences, they also have to communicate these risks to business leaders to ensure sufficient budgets, and don their HR hats to recruit the necessary skill sets. The CISO’s role is harder than ever before and the demand has never been higher for automated and hosted solutions.”
From the survey, 63 per cent of IT decision-makers plan to leverage AI technology to automate their security processes. However, while AI can handle data processing effectively, trained cybersecurity professionals are needed to analyse the results and manage the overall security strategy.
According to research company Gartner, “The shortage of skilled security professionals has been a perennial problem that consistently results in failed security technology deployments. The number of unfilled cybersecurity roles is expected to grow from one million in 2018 to 1.5 million by the end of 2020.”
The Gartner report stated that most organisations struggle to fill their open positions, let alone retain skilled staff. Managed detection and response (MDR) services are filling the needs of organisations of all sizes that lack internal security resources and expertise and want to expand their investments beyond preventive security technologies to address their detection, response and monitoring gaps 24/7.
Trend Micro addresses both the technology and the skills gap needs of people to help solve this business problem. Companies are increasingly adopting MDR and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions from Trend Micro to streamline visibility, prioritise threats, and optimise the time and talent of in-house teams.
