Member Article

Security analysts frustrated with lack of progress over mundane tasks

More than half (51%) of security analysts regard time spent on mundane tasks as the worst part of working in a Security Operations Centre (SOC) according to new research from cyber security firm SIRP Labs.

In fact, there is a strong correlation between how much time is spent managing alerts and frustration with 58% of those spending between 10% and 50% of their day on alerts voicing their frustration.

The findings are part of an independent study by Sapio Research following interviews with 250 security analysts in July 2020.

According to the findings, the average SOC leaves plenty of room for improvement. Almost a third (29%) of respondents believe missed alerts due to high volumes are a significant, even serious, problem. In companies of 1,000-2,500 employees the figure rises to 46%.

On average, time spent managing security alerts in man hours alone is costing organisations £200,601 a year the study also reveals.

“This study graphically illustrates the human and financial cost of working in a busy, high-pressure security operations centre,” said Faiz Shuja, Co-Founder & CEO, SIRP Labs. “In general, organisations have not done enough to improve upon SOCs’ all too familiar flaws from security tool sprawl to over-reliance on mundane manual processes to missed alerts and false positives.

“It lays bare SOC analysts’ frustrations many of whom would like to see the introduction of more automation to help raise productivity as well as reduce the number of false positives and missed alerts,” he added.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by TH .