A recent report suggests that a majority of cybersecurity professionals experience extreme stress and burnout with 54% of them wanting to quit their jobs. In 2022, Forbes forecasted that one in 10 of these experts will leave the industry.
Cybersecurity burnout is real and is wearing down many of our fellows. With cyberattacks growing more sophisticated by the week, professionals are stressed around the clock. Still, there are some ways to support these cyber whizzes.
The best way to thwart cybersecurity stress burnout is to keep it from taking hold in the first place. Here are a few simple tricks that can help minimize stress levels.
1. Take Regular Breaks
Companies, employees, and cyber specialists themselves should encourage frequent breaks throughout the day. These breaks are key for periodically relieving stress, so it rarely feels suffocating.
2. Have a Strong Work-Life Balance
When an individual has stressors coming from all sides — childcare, car maintenance, family pets, house upkeep — they start to break down. Companies can help circumvent occupational meltdowns by encouraging employees to have a strong work-life balance.
This point is especially critical for cybersecurity specialists who may combat cyber threats at any time of the day. Encouraging flexible work hours can go a long way toward keeping their stress levels manageable.
3. Find Natural Ways to Relieve Stress
When your body perceives a threat, it triggers the release of specific hormones that incite a fight or flight response. Your heartbeat quickens, your breathing speeds up, you become tense, and your adrenaline spikes.
The trick is to use natural ways to relieve stress. For example, exercise generates endorphins, which decrease muscle tension, bolster your mood, and improve your sleep habits. Also, a good laugh can relax your muscles for up to 45 minutes.
4. Consider Seeing a Specialist
Have you ever heard the saying that you’re too close to see the big picture? People are often unaware of other elements triggering their stress levels. A therapist can work with you to reveal major and minor stressors and suggest coping practices.
While there’s no therapeutic cure for cyberattacks, eliminating other stressors can expand a cybersecurity specialist’s capacity to handle the stress of their job.
5. Get Enough Sleep
Some security experts are needed around the clock, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get a full sleep every 24 hours. If they end up working in the evening, they need to have the flexibility to sleep in, leave work early… simply catch up on their downtime.
6. Delegate Tasks
It’s hard to give up control. But, the American Institute of Stress has identified that “our experience of stress … is directly linked to our need to be in control.” By relinquishing control of some tasks or projects, cybersecurity specialists can let go of some extra stressors.
7. Avoid Multitasking
Along the lines of delegating tasks, avoid multitasking. While it takes mere seconds to mentally switch from one task to another, studies have shown that most multitaskers don’t feel more productive. In fact, they feel more stressed because of the numerous projects on their plates.
8. Invest in Security Solutions with a Great User Experience
While many companies are focused on the most robust, most secure, and most resilient security solutions, they’re forgetting one key factor: the user experience.
The user experience isn’t just about appeasing employees and making sure everyone is happy and unbothered when using their work computers: it’s about mitigating service desk calls.
Talking about multitasking, service calls are extreme stressors for your cyber wizards. These calls are unexpected and often require the specialist to drop whatever they’re doing to fix the issue.
Now that we’re well into the 21st century, it’s time to stop sacrificing the user experience. More recently, many leading-edge companies in the industry have developed ultra-secure solutions with a great user experience.
The Latest in User Authentication
In 2022, WinMagic released a passwordless authentication solution that requires no user action to achieve the highest-rated user security to date.
MagicEndpoint is based on 25 years of experience and innovation in using the endpoint to keep users safe from cyberattacks and other threats. Founded on FIDO2 protocols, our solution uses public key cryptography to verify the user magnitudes more reliably than passwords or traditional MFA. FIDO2 verifies the user via cryptographic key credentials, which are never shared over any network.
By verifying the “user + device” entity at every event — sign in, sign out, app interactions, and more — MagicEndpoint offers phishing-resistant, zero-trust “always verify” security. This level of protection delivers secure user authentication that requires no user action whatsoever for logging into online apps and services.
Supporting Cybersecurity Professionals
There are countless science-backed ways to combat stress. Companies can help their security professionals by supporting flexible work habits and making sure the organization relies on cutting-edge cybersecurity.
So, what do modern security solutions mean for your cybersecurity specialists? In the case of MagicEndpoint:
- No more password resets
- Eliminate phishing attacks
- Higher productivity for all employees
To learn more about how MagicEndpoint can alleviate stress in your environment, contact our Sales team.
