Cyber Professionals Fear Being Replaced By AI

New entrants and the younger generation in the cyber security industry are more concerned that Artificial Intelligence (AI) automation will eventually replace their jobs than their longer serving professional colleagues, despite a 88% of security professionals believing automation will make their jobs easier.

This is according to new research released recently by Exabeam, which surveyed 350 global practitioners of the cybersecurity industry on various topics including skills, salary and stress.

• According to the findings, 53% of respondents under 45 years old either agreed or strongly agreed that AI is a threat to their job security, despite 89% of this demographic believing that it would improve their jobs.

• Meanwhile, only 25% of those over 45 were threatened by AI and 80% think that it will simplify work.

• When surveyed by country, the most paranoid cybersecurity workers were in Singapore, where 54% were concerned about having their jobs made redundant by automation. This was followed by the US (47%), Germany (42%), Australia (40%) and the UK (33%).

“The concern for automation among younger professionals in cybersecurity was surprising to us... In trying to understand this sentiment, we could partially attribute it to lack of on-the-job training using automation technology." commented Samantha Humphries of Exabeam. 

Employee satisfaction enjoyed a general increase across the industry:

• 96% of those surveyed reported satisfaction around roles and responsibilities,

• 87% were happy with salaries, and 77% said they struck a good work/life balance.

• 53% of respondents reported their jobs as being either stressful or very stressful, down from 62% from last year.

Despite worries about automation, younger workers in the 18-24-year-old bracket, were extremely happy with and 100% of this group reported feeling secure in their roles and 93% were satisfied with their salaries.

There were also significant increases in job approval over previous years, with an upward trend in satisfaction around role and responsibilities (96%), salary (87%) and work/life balance (77%).  

When asked what else they enjoyed about their jobs, respondents listed working in an environment with professional growth (15%) as well as opportunities to challenge oneself (21%) as top motivators.

The survey also found that while women are still vastly underrepresented in the sector, there has been an improvement in gender diversity in 2020, with female respondents increasing from 9% to 21% this year. Exabeam says that it remains to be seen whether this will become a consistent trend. 

Exabeam:      Security Brief:      TecHR Series:       Yahoo:

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