Why Automation Isn’t Replacing Cybersecurity Pros Anytime Soon

By Mark Sasson, Managing Partner, Pinpoint Search Group

Human labor in verticals such as manufacturing has certainly been impacted by automation. For instance, 46 percent of existing factory jobs are projected to be replaced by automation by 2030. However, within the context of cybersecurity, and tech in general, automation is not an existential threat to human workers in the field. Instead, it is a welcome addition.

Of course, there’s a place for automation in the enterprise, as it alleviates many of the challenges executives face on a daily basis. As it stands today, digital transformation and other modernization efforts are being stymied; for a variety of reasons, it’s taking too much time to implement these initiatives. For instance, slow and laborious manual efforts are still being relied upon for important initiatives like cloud migrations and the implementation of new cybersecurity tools. Clearly, this is not an efficient way of doing things in today’s day and age. Many of these efforts would be accelerated tremendously by automation.

Putting things into perspective, there are 2.5 quintillion (18 zeros) bytes of data being produced every day, according to Arvind Krishna, IBM’s CEO. Even if there wasn’t a labor shortage in just about every market today, there is no possible way humans can process all that data manually. It begs the question: What’s the point of buying all this cool new tech if we can’t implement it properly? Without enough skilled engineers to go around — and there are not enough — the most efficient solution without a doubt is automation.

As it relates to cybersecurity specifically, cyberattacks are increasing exponentially, both in frequency and sophistication. Combine that reality with the fact that there is a substantial gap between the need for and availability of cybersecurity talent, automation is essential. For already overworked cybersecurity teams, manually managing alerts, and engaging in repetitive tasks is exhausting an already overworked and burnt-out talent pool. Again, there is a need for automation.

But what many people forget is cybersecurity and tech in general are not entirely driven by engineering. A company can develop the best tech on earth, and there is a chance no one would ever know about it. For example, go-to-market (GTM) functions, such as sales, field engineering, marketing and customer success, play a critical role in the adoption of technology; however, many of the tools in these areas cannot be automated. They require humans behind the controls.

Successful GTM functions require human characteristics, such as strategy, nuance, and emotional intelligence. While automation may have replaced human interaction for basic tasks like scheduling and drip email campaigns, the purchase of six and seven-figure technology solutions is conducted by human beings.

For all these reasons and more, we are seeing automation enhance and increase the productivity of highly skilled cybersecurity professionals. Companies that did not have automation in place for cybersecurity programs spent an average of $6.7 million to recover from a breach, whereas those that did implement automation spent $2.9 million. And we still have a global “talent gap” of approximately 2.7 million, meaning that even with automation, more humans are needed to ensure the security of enterprise and government cyber domains.

While automation may end up replacing some jobs in cybersecurity at some point, it won’t be replacing all of them. For many cybersecurity professionals, automation is necessary but not a threat.

About the Author

Mark Sasson is the Managing Partner of Pinpoint Search Group. Pinpoint Search Group is a boutique search firm dedicated to filling vice president, director, and senior individual contributor searches for cybersecurity vendors. Pinpoint has represented top multinational cybersecurity vendors based in the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Israel and France selling to top commercial and public sector organizations.

Mark Sasson can be reached online at LinkedIn and Twitter and at Pinpoint’s company website https://pinpointsearchgroup.com