Despite reporting high-stress resilience, a new report reveals a looming burnout crisis in cybersecurity, with nearly half of the surveyed professionals anticipating burnout within a year, and a staggering 80% expect it in three years or less.

These findings are part of a MultiTeam Solutions report titled Stress & Burnout in Cybersecurity: The Risk of a Thousand Papercuts that runs a survey of 173 international cybersecurity professionals. In this report, burnout is defined as “lacking the motivation to do their job effectively.”

As a result of their mental health status, cybersecurity professionals feel compelled to leave their organisation or seek out new opportunities to manage the stress burden they are experiencing. 

“At a time when the frequency of cybersecurity attacks is exponentially on the rise, our research has revealed that the burnout crisis is now. Work-induced stress is impacting motivation and bringing many cybersecurity professionals to a breaking point,” said Dr. Daniel Shore, co-founder and social behavioural scientist at MultiTeam Solutions.

The research findings infer that SLMs and supervisors are at a loss of resources, skills, capacity, and their motivation to handle the ongoing burnout crisis. 

This high burnout rate fuels a vicious cycle of job hopping. Exhausted professionals seek new opportunities, but the industry’s pervasive culture often leads them to similar environments, offering at best a reprieve before burnout sets in again.

The findings call for a complete cultural shift that properly appreciates the mental health pressures placed on cybersecurity professionals, breaking down silos that isolate individuals and understanding the human factors linked to burnout.

“Failing this, there is a real risk the industry will continue to be at a disadvantage for addressing the mounting cyber threats which only continue to increase in number and complexity,” explains Dr Shore.