IT Security Pros Are Worried that Automation May Take Away Their Jobs: Study

An increasing number of IT security professionals in the United States have now begun to fear that artificial intelligence (A) and automation, which helped ease the stress on cybersecurity, would one day take over their jobs.

In this year’s survey of IT security professionals jointly conducted by Ponemon Institute and DomainTools, 51% of respondents have expressed concerns that automation would reduce the headcount in the security department, an increase from 30 percent in last year’s study.

Around 37% of them have said that they were confident they would lose their jobs in the next four years.

The news comes at a time when security departments in many organizations are understaffed.

While a vast majority of IT pros conceded that automation had eased their task of securing data, many respondents in the survey did not agree that the increased use of automation technologies had enhanced the need to hire higher-skilled workers.

Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute, has dismissed the concerns over job loss, saying automation does not eliminate any jobs. “What is likely is for there to be a consolidation of existing roles, rather than an elimination. This means better opportunities for employees to up-level their current skills to create more value-added roles as the human side of security remains as important as ever.”

The study also found 24% of organizations not using automation, mainly due to a lack of in-house expertise.

For the study, DomainTools interviewed more than 1,000 IT and IT security practitioners in the US and the UK.