Oct 21, 2021

No matter your industry, chances are your team is feeling the strain of the cybersecurity talent gap. For nearly a decade, the demand for cybersecurity experts has surpassed the number of skilled workers. “It’s a full-on war for cybertalent,” Matt Comyns, a seasoned cybersecurity expert, told the Los Angeles Times in 2019.

The high demand for cybersecurity jobs means many analysts are overworked, doing the job of two or three employees because companies simply can’t find the talent. But it doesn’t have to be this way. In this blog post, we’ll explain the cybersecurity talent gap and share a cloud-native tool that can reduce the strain on your team: the cloud security operations center (SOC).

Understanding the Cybersecurity Talent Gap

Our world is more technological than ever—and that means we need better, more effective cybersecurity. With the rise of ransomware attacks across the public and private sectors, many organizations are looking to revamp their security to keep their systems safe—and they need a team of experts to make it happen. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, demand for information security analysts is anticipated to grow more than 30% between 2019 and 2029—more than three times as fast as most other fields.

But in today’s job market, the need for cybersecurity personnel has far outpaced the number of skilled employees. In fact, experts anticipate that by the end of 2021 there will be more than 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs—up from 1 million unfilled jobs in 2014. With this enormous gap in talent, companies are looking for creative ways to meet their security goals without hiring new staff.

How can you ramp up your security without overloading your IT team? For many business leaders, cloud SOCs are the answer.

Better Security in the Cloud

Even companies that have moved some of their operations to the cloud can feel apprehensive about cloud-based security. Strict compliance regulations and fear of cyber-attacks keep many organizations tethered to their on-premises systems. But this is a mistake. The reality is that cloud SOCs are often more secure, more efficient, and better at detecting threats than traditional on-premises systems—and they can solve talent shortages by helping your team work smarter, instead of harder. Here are a few ways cloud SOCs boost your security without burdening your IT staff:

No more monitoring logs
Whereas traditional security systems might require analysts to monitor logs, cloud SOCs use automated intrusion detection systems. Instead of sifting through endless false positive alerts, your team can address probable (not just possible) risks—giving them back loads of time.
Easily detect complex patterns
When it comes to monitoring systems, automation is often more effective than the human eye. Advanced detection programs can see patterns that humans might overlook because they can more easily consume and remember large amounts of data. That level of manual threat detection often requires multiple advanced security analysts, which your team might not have on-staff.
Scale up or down without maintenance
Cloud SOCs can quickly scale up and down based on your needs without burdening your team with time-consuming installation and maintenance.And, for certain threats, like denial-of-service attacks that overload your system, your cloud SOC will automatically scale, making it harder for hackers to shut you down.

Free Up Your Security Team With a Cloud SOC

Security experts may be hard to come by, but with a cloud SOC all you need is a small, well-trained team to keep your organization safe. Using the power of automation and cloud-based tools, you’ll get the most value out of your cybersecurity experts—plus, they’ll be happier solving complex problems instead of sitting in front of a log.

Want to learn more about the benefits of cloud-based security?
Check out our e-book, Smarter Security in the AWS Cloud: 5 Reasons To Move to a Cloud Security Operations Center

__________
Learn more: