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Nearly all Chief Information Security Officers (CISO) are under immense stress at work, a new report from Cyble claims.
Beyond the personal impact, the company notes that for many companies, this stress hinders a CISO’s ability to perform, putting the entire organization at risk.
Cyble’s “Implications of stress on CISOs 2023” report, based on interviews with SMB CISOs whose IT teams consist of up to five people, says 94% of them are super stressed at work. As a result, two-thirds (65%) are not performing as well as they would like.
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Stress also causes people to quit – and three-quarters (74%) of respondents have had at least one team member in the last 12 months, while half (47%) have had several people walk out the door. Stress also makes hiring difficult. More than four in five (83%) have had to compromise on staffing just to fill the gaps and keep the business going.
More than a third of CISOs surveyed for the report said they were looking for a new employer themselves.
Board members, on the other hand, don’t seem to understand it. Four in five (79%) of CISOs said they received complaints from the board that their work was not being handled adequately. Almost all (93%) would like to spend more time on strategic work instead of tactical work. In fact, more than a quarter say they spend their working day almost exclusively on tactical/operational tasks.
What’s more – when they work – they never seem to stop, as 84% had to cancel a holiday, 64% missed a private event and 90% consistently work more than 40 hours a week – without a break.
To address the problem, the vote is unanimous – they need more resources. They need more talent, more tools and more automation.
“One of the most notable insights from the report was the fact that more than 50% of CISOs we surveyed said consolidating multiple security technologies (opens in new tab) on a single platform would reduce their work-related stress levels,” said Eyal Gruner, co-founder and CEO of Cynet.