As breaches continue to rise, cyber security and development professionals are feeling the pressure to maintain their organisations’ security postures. Invicti Security released research in its State of the DevSecOps Professional: At Work and off the Clock report unveiling how developers and security professionals are overworked and understaffed, yet prideful of their roles within their organisations.
Conducted in partnership with Wakefield Research, the report is based on a survey of 500 cyber security professionals and software developers with at least a director title within their organisation. Surveyed individuals came from US companies with 2,000 or more employees.
The survey reveals that the Great Resignation and impending cyber-attacks have created added stress on their jobs:
- DevSecOps professionals spend more than four hours each workday addressing security issues that never should have happened in the first place, with 41% of cyber security professionals spending over five hours addressing security issues compared to 32% of their developer counterparts.
- After the last vulnerability is discovered, 81% of professionals are likely to already feel anxious about the next.
- It’s affecting personal lives too. Half of cyber security and development pros (50%) have had to log in over the weekend or on their own time, and one in three blew off a date or night out with friends. In fact, 41% of developers blew off a night out compared to 34% of their cyber security counterparts.
Despite this, the majority of professionals are proud of their careers, and they see their overall work making a positive impact. The findings show:
- Because of their work, 65% of cyber security and development professionals believe they’ve saved their companies over $1m this year by preventing breaches.
- 94% agree that digital transformation and the move to a remote work model in recent years have made their role more valuable and rewarding.
- They believe they’ve chosen an attractive career path. 88% said they would be proud to put ‘cyber security expert’ in an online dating profile.
- Working relationships are improving between security and development. 49% of respondents say they are ‘besties’ with their counterparts, while 28% say they are ‘frenemies.’ That’s up 14% from the Fall Edition of the Invicti AppSec Indicator.
“Moving to the cloud and the pressure to secure everything without slowing down business priorities has made cyber security and development professionals the unsung heroes of their organisation,” says Sonali Shah, Chief Product Officer at Invicti. “But with strapped teams, organisations are struggling to retain talent. That’s why it’s critical to prioritise technology that protects the organisation while also enabling collaboration, automating manual tasks, and in turn, promoting overall well-being.”
