{"id":91696,"date":"2024-10-09T15:42:20","date_gmt":"2024-10-09T07:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/version-2.com\/?p=91696"},"modified":"2024-10-09T15:55:46","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T07:55:46","slug":"attention-alert-fatigue-can-result-in-severe-burnout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/version-2.com\/en\/2024\/10\/attention-alert-fatigue-can-result-in-severe-burnout\/","title":{"rendered":"Attention! Alert fatigue can result in severe burnout"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sometimes there is just so much work to do that we lose focus and begin to miss some crucial details, leading to a degradation in efficiency, performance, and output \u2013 resulting in a complete burnout. This is especially true for IT jobs, where burnout rates are high<\/a> due to an insurmountable amount of tasks.\u00a0<\/p>

In cybersecurity, alert fatigue is one major sign of burnout, which can enormously influence the state of a business’s cybersecurity. Knowing about the symptoms and ways to ameliorate any possibility of it happening is paramount for the continuing well-being of your business and employees.<\/p><\/div>

What is alert fatigue?<\/h3><\/header>

Alert fatigue is a sign of many things, but mostly, it is a sign of an incoming burnout. Be it because of complex interfaces, faulty security software rife with false positives, or low bandwidth to handle incoming alerts, especially in cybersecurity, it is easy to become overwhelmed.<\/p>

Solutions like Extended Detection and Response (XDR)<\/a> can be helpful but can also be very demanding, as they require trained eyes to operate. Likewise, Security Information Event Management (SIEM)<\/a> is very useful, but it can be hard to discern what is or isn\u2019t important, and the incoming traffic of logs can overwhelm even the most skilled professional.<\/p>

What this results in is a constant demand for one\u2019s attention, increased levels of stress, and a possible distaste for more in-depth investigation of incidents due to the number of reports, which, coupled with other calls for attention at work, can heavily increase one\u2019s workload. Imagine it as a constant need to be alert and attentive. Repeat this several times and, voil\u00e1, burnout is achieved.<\/p><\/div>

Demanding workloads<\/h3><\/header>

Curiously, a question can be raised whether it is truly the workload that drives alert fatigue, or if it is the result of cybersecurity tools not being up to the task of lightening the human touch.<\/p>

A case can be made for the need to lower the burden on business IT generalists (staff), since they often also fill in other roles as (aside from having to protect the company from external threats) they also manage the networks and devices used by the employees, among other tasks.<\/p>

It is not usually a single person managing all the previously mentioned tasks, but that doesn\u2019t mean that individuals in a team cannot suffer burnout; the demands can be high, their bandwidth low, and working on repetitive chores is one way to waste time and achieve insanity<\/a>. On the flip side, excessive boredom at work can also lead to the same result<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>

Complex software<\/h3><\/header>

For IT specialists, a bane of their existence is bad, buggy, or overly complex software that makes work many times harder. This is why the current trend is to simplify user interfaces<\/a> and graphics, or add a bit of automation to highlight only the most relevant points.<\/p>

This is easy to see when looking at the evolution of operating systems or widely used apps \u2013 during the 2010s, most companies decided to simplify and make interactions with their prospective parts easier than before (a good example is the iOS 7 update<\/a> or Windows 11<\/a> compared to previous releases). ESET did the same with the ESET PROTECT Platform<\/a>, introducing a simple and easy-to-use dashboard for ESET PROTECT to make the work of IT security operators more manageable.<\/p>

What\u2019s more, this design philosophy has driven the company to design features such as the ESET AI Advisor<\/a> or ESET Vulnerability and Patch Management<\/a>, addressing the elephant in the room \u2013 complex security doesn\u2019t need to be a burden as, believe it or not, being frustrated with security is a great way to weaken it.<\/p><\/div>

Managing burdens and reducing complexity<\/h3><\/header>

There is always some way to make work easier, and there always are solutions that exist as an answer to some deficiencies or weak points of others. For example, overburdened or small business IT teams can opt to outsource their security to managed security service providers (MSSPs), lowering the chance of fatigue as a result of cybersecurity-related work.<\/p>

Cannot cope with the number of detections coming from your extensive business infrastructure? Look for a Managed Detection and Response<\/a> (MDR) solution that can help any business leverage the added skills and knowledge of an experienced cybersecurity vendor, upscaling their quality and state of protection.<\/p>

Not every business can afford to increase the size of their IT teams, especially during times when there is a lack of professionals, and those that are available can be very expensive to hire. And if the current specialists are already struggling, why lose them because of burnout?<\/p><\/div>

Apart from outsourcing, there are also some techniques individuals can use to ward off alert fatigue or burnout in general:<\/p>