Gartner predicts massive tech job shifts by 2025

Work-related stressors will cause nearly half of the industry’s cybersecurity leaders to land in a new role by 2025, with 25% predicted to opt for a different role entirely, according to Gartner.

“Cybersecurity professionals are facing unsustainable levels of stress,” said Deepti Gopal, Director Analyst, Gartner.

“CISOs are on the defence, with the only possible outcomes that they don’t get hacked or they do. The psychological impact of this directly affects decision quality and the performance of cybersecurity leaders and their teams.”

The firm says these these dynamics, coupled with the significant market opportunities for cybersecurity professionals, make talent churn a likely threat for security teams. Gartner research shows that compliance-centric cybersecurity programs, low executive support and subpar industry-level maturity are all indicators of an organisation that does not view security risk management as critical to business success. Organisations of this type are likely to experience higher attrition as talent leaves for roles where their impact is felt and valued.

“Burnout and voluntary attrition are outcomes of poor organisational culture,” Gopal said.

“While eliminating stress is an unrealistic goal, people can manage incredibly challenging and stressful jobs in cultures where they’re supported.”

Humans are the chief cause of security incidents

Gartner predicts that by 2025, lack of talent or human failure will be responsible for over half of significant cyber incidents. The number of cyber and social engineering attacks against people is spiking as threat actors increasingly see humans as the most vulnerable point of exploitation.

The firm conducted a survey conducted in May and June 2022 of 1310 employees, which revealed that 69% have bypassed their organisation’s cybersecurity guidance in the past 12 months. In the survey, 74% of employees said they would be willing to bypass cybersecurity guidance if it helped them or their team achieve a business objective.

“Friction that slows down employees and leads to insecure behaviour is a significant driver of insider risk,” said Paul Furtado, VP Analyst, Gartner.

To confront this rising threat, Gartner predicts that half of medium-to-large enterprises will adopt formal programs to manage insider risk by 2025, up from 10% today. A focused insider risk management program should proactively and predictively identify behaviours that may result in the potential exfiltration of corporate assets or other damaging actions and provide corrective guidance, not punishment.

“CISOs must increasingly consider insider risk when developing a cybersecurity program. Traditional cybersecurity tools have limited visibility into threats that come from within,” Furtado said.

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