Intelligent CISO Issue 33 | Page 37

Of respondents under the age of 45 , 53 % agreed or strongly agreed that AI and ML are a threat to their job security .
FEATURE
Despite 88 % of cybersecurity professionals believing automation will make their jobs easier , younger staffers are more concerned that the technology will replace their roles than their veteran counterparts , according to new research by Exabeam , the Smarter SIEM company . The finding is part of the 2020 Cybersecurity Professionals Salary , Skills and Stress Survey , an annual survey of security practitioners . Overall , satisfaction levels continued a three-year positive trend , with 96 % of respondents indicating they are happy with role and responsibilities and 87 % reportedly pleased with salary and earnings . Additionally , there was improvement in gender diversity , with female respondents increasing from 9 % in 2019 to 21 % in 2020 .
The purpose of the survey is to gain insights on trends related to salary , education level , job satisfaction and general attitudes towards innovative and emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) and Machine Learning ( ML ) among cybersecurity professionals worldwide . The survey was fielded to more than 350 professionals in the United States ( US ), Singapore ( SG ), Germany ( DE ), Australia ( AUS ) and the United Kingdom ( UK ), collated by research company , Censuswide .
“ The concern for automation among younger professionals in cybersecurity was surprising to us . In trying to understand this sentiment , we could partially attribute it to lack of on-the-job training using automation technology ,”
Samantha Humphries , Senior Security Strategist at Exabeam said Samantha Humphries , Security Strategist at Exabeam . “ As we noted earlier in 2020 in our State of the SOC research , ambiguity around career path or lack of understanding about automation can have an impact on job security . It ’ s also possible that this is a symptom of the current economic climate or a general lack of experience navigating the workforce during a global recession .”

Of respondents under the age of 45 , 53 % agreed or strongly agreed that AI and ML are a threat to their job security .

Of respondents under the age of 45 , 53 % agreed or strongly agreed that AI and ML are a threat to their job security . This is contrasted with just 25 % of respondents 45 and over who feel the same , possibly indicating that subsets of security professionals in particular prefer to write rules and manually investigate .
Interestingly , when asked directly about automation software , 89 % of respondents under 45 years old believed it would improve their jobs , yet 47 % are still threatened by its use . This is again in contrast with the 45-and-over demographic , where 80 % believed automation would simplify their work and only 22 % felt threatened by its use . Examining the sentiments around automation by region , 47 % of US respondents were concerned about job security when automation software is in use , as well as SG ( 54 %), DE ( 42 %), AUS ( 40 %) and UK ( 33 %).
In Exabeam ’ s 2019 survey , which drew insights from professionals throughout the US , UK , Australia , Canada , India and the Netherlands , only 10 % overall believed that AI and automation were a threat to their jobs . On the flip side , www . intelligentciso . com
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