How CISOs Can Support Overloaded Security Teams

A recent study by the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) revealed that 66% of security practitioners say that their profession has become progressively more challenging over the past two years.¹ Some of the key causes are the expanding threat landscape, lack of consolidation of tools, information overload, too many false positives, and global cybersecurity skills shortages. Not to mention, critical vulnerability findings are up by an average of 200%, across all the Top 10 assets, as reported in the 2024 BreachLock Penetration Testing Intelligence Report. It is more evident than ever that security teams must be extremely strategic when prioritizing efforts, especially when it comes to vulnerability remediation.

The Key Challenges Faced by Modern Cybersecurity Teams

Safeguarding organizations from numerous threats is no easy feat, but the challenges that cybersecurity practitioners face can often make their work more difficult.

An Expanding Threat Landscape

According to Verizon’s 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), which analyzed 30,458 real-world security incidents that occurred in 2023, 10,626 of those security incidents were confirmed data breaches with victims spanning 94 countries, which is a record high.² Security practitioners’ sentiments towards the threat landscape align with these figures, as 74% of respondents in ISC2’s 2024 Cybersecurity Workforce Study reported that “the current threat landscape is the most challenging they have seen in the last five years.”³ This is evidence that the threat landscape is becoming increasingly challenging to manage as organizations face unprecedented threats.

The emergence of new risks is contributing to the overall pessimism. Clever attackers now leverage advanced AI technologies to execute large-scale phishing scams, launch social engineering attacks, and spread malware and ransomware. Some use AI to create convincing deepfakes and perpetrate financial scams, while others use AI algorithms to evade traditional intrusion detection tools. Such AI-fueled attacks are expanding the threat landscape and increasing the burden on security teams.

Too Many Tools to Manage

The average-size small to medium enterprise (SME) manages more than 10 cybersecurity tools at a time. And a whopping 75% of SMEs spend 3-6 hours a day managing and monitoring these tools and on time-consuming activities like⁴:

• Managing vulnerabilities
• Analyzing alerts
• Responding to high-priority alerts
• Managing endpoint agents

Having to deal with all these activities on multiple tools overwhelms security teams, affecting their ability to focus on what’s important and make good decisions. It doesn’t help that many cybersecurity tools feature complex user interfaces that are hard to configure or difficult to integrate with the existing security stack, adding to their burden and compromising organizational security.

Information Overload and False Positives

For 38% of security practitioners, alert overload is a serious problem. So, it’s unsurprising that many admit to turning down tool sensitivity (31%), muting alerts (26%), ignoring alerts (22%), or purposely failing to act on high-priority alerts (25%). A staggering 73% of SME teams miss alerts entirely, meaning they don’t notice – or worse, fail to act on – many genuine warnings.^4</4>

Most modern intelligence and security analytics tools provide valuable data and useful insights. However, too much data and too many insights from multiple tools can lead to information overload, making it difficult for teams to identify the most critical findings and take appropriate and timely action against genuine threats. Similarly, as we all know, a consistent barrage of false positives causes alert fatigue, leading to teams muting or ignoring alerts rather than properly investigating them. These misses may result in real risks being overlooked, putting the organization at high risk of security incidents.

Not Enough Colleagues to Share the Load

Between 2023 and 2024, the cybersecurity skills gap grew by 19%, representing about 4.8 million cybersecurity professionals needed worldwide.3 In 2024, 71% of organizations admit to being affected by the cybersecurity skills gap.¹ Cybersecurity skills and personnel shortages increase the workload for existing teams and even lead to burnout. Moreover, they weaken a firm’s ability to effectively deal with the expanding threat landscape.

How CISOs Can Support Cybersecurity Teams and Boost Organizational Cybersecurity

So how can CISOs help their cybersecurity teams to mitigate the above concerns? Here are three ways:

Adopt Security Automation

We know that many cybersecurity professionals lose productive time managing mundane security processes and tasks. Adopting tools that automate these tasks can help them to save time and reduce overwhelm.

Automated tools can also aid teams – and organizations – in differentiating between real threats and benign events. They can continuously identify the efficacy of security controls and additional risks, to ensure their IT infrastructure is on alert for any potential threats.

Some tools can also prioritize alerts according to risk to help accelerate investigations and prevent escalations. Others can execute pre-defined actions to enable teams to contain or eliminate issues and keep downtime to a minimum.

Modern Offensive Security tools integrate with many other security systems like firewalls and endpoint protection products to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of security testing. The combination of integrating automation and offensive and defensive tools strengthens an organization’s security posture and resilience.

Consolidate Tools

A sprawling cybersecurity tech stack is hard to manage and often leads to frustration and burnout among security professionals. Too many tools that are not integrated into a seamless platform also make DevSecOps collaboration difficult thus increasing the likelihood of missed alerts and a higher risk of attack.

CISOs can avoid these problems by reducing the number of tools in the stack but also by being strategic about what tools will serve to meet your business objectives. A unified security platform with relevant integrated security solutions that work across environments and both internal and external attack surfaces will provide the comprehensive coverage that is needed to address issues in the entire security ecosystem. Some platforms leverage advanced technologies like AI and machine learning to accelerate response times by identifying anomalies and patterns of behavior that can lead to potential threats. These platforms can also automatically update security controls or alert security teams of potential vulnerabilities to implement patches and updates and prioritize findings. By eliminating these previously manual tasks, security teams can reduce the complexity of IT operations and improve the morale and productivity of security teams.

Partner with a Reliable Cybersecurity Services Provider

A reliable and trustworthy cybersecurity partner can also reduce the burden of over-extended security teams by taking care of many time-consuming tasks. Providers who offer offensive security solutions provide a proactive approach to your security strategy using such tools as human-led and automated continuous penetration testing, attack surface management, and red teaming.

The best partners leverage proven frameworks, advanced technologies, flexible security solutions, and highly skilled human experts, empowering organizations to:

1. Continuously discover, prioritize, and mitigate exposures
2. Accelerate vulnerability discovery and remediation
3. Proactively test defenses to prevent attacks

Conclusion

Modern CISOs already have their hands full trying to safeguard their organizations’ networks, applications, and data from the bad guys. It doesn’t help that their cybersecurity teams are often overworked, over-extended, or overwhelmed.

Fortunately, there are many ways that CISOs can support their security teams while also strengthening enterprise defenses. One very effective way is to work with a security partner that offers Offensive Security Solutions balanced with defensive tools to ensure both a proactive and defensive approach.

To learn how BreachLock’s Offensive Security solutions can empower your organization to reach your business objectives, schedule a free discovery call with one of our certified experts.

About BreachLock

BreachLock is a global leader in Continuous Attack Surface Discovery and Penetration Testing. Continuously discover, prioritize, and mitigate exposures with evidence-backed Attack Surface Management, Penetration Testing Services, and Red Teaming.

Elevate your defense strategy with an attacker’s view that goes beyond common vulnerabilities and exposures. Each risk we uncover is backed by validated evidence. We test your entire attack surface and help you mitigate your next cyber breach before it occurs.

Know your risk. Contact BreachLock today!