Throughout the course of my career in information security, I’ve witnessed a disturbing trend firsthand: the alarming rate of burnout among SOC analysts. It's not just a statistic; it's a real and present danger to our teams and our organizations.

More than 40% of security leaders say that SOC personnel average tenure is declining, which is troubling in and of itself, according to SANS Research. However, when combined with the fact that 53% of leaders cite a shortage of qualified cybersecurity security personnel in the market, and that replacing these positions can take seven months to two years, it’s exposing the rest of the team to even greater stress, the organization to greater risk, and leading to very high costs for the organization. In addition to the hard costs of recruitment, the lost productivity of open roles and the potential loss from missed attacks are substantial, albeit more difficult to quantify.  

This vicious cycle means that burnout isn’t just limited to staff levels; 93% of CISOs are reporting that the stress of the role is reaching personally unsustainable levels causing them to leave their jobs, and this goes a long way in explaining the average CISO tenure, which is somewhere between 18 and 24 months.  

At OG&E, where I most recently served as the Company’s CISO, I had a talented team, but the sheer volume of alerts, the complexity of investigations, and the constant pressure were taking a toll. While we didn’t often lose valuable team members, the stress became untenable for team members at times.  Many of my peers, however, didn’t fare as well.  They would often lament the high cost of turnover resulting from analyst burnout.  Let’s face it, replacing a seasoned analyst is expensive. You're looking at recruitment costs, onboarding, training – not to mention the lost productivity and institutional knowledge.  And the problem is only getting worse with the emergence of AI and the exponential acceleration of attacks it is creating.  

Past is Prologue When It Comes to Analyst Burnout

The challenges that senior SOC analysts face have their roots in the early days of securing systems in the Internet era, where the volume of firewall, IPS, and IDS alerts were difficult to correlate and impossible to manage. SIEM emerged to address this problem, as have the wave of detection and response tools that have been layered on top of SIEM—from EDR to SOAR. However, none of them could have anticipated the pressure of keeping pace with threats in today’s cloud-intensive security environment.  

Some of the unique challenges leading to burnout include:

• Overwhelming Alert Volume: The number of security alerts from both vulnerabilities and threat actors is exploding, often leading to “alert fatigue.”

• Expanding Attack Surface: The shift to the cloud, while offering numerous benefits, has dramatically increased the attack surface and complexity of investigations.

• AI-Powered Attacks: Hackers are leveraging AI to automate and scale their attacks, making them more sophisticated and difficult to detect.

• False Positives: Ironically, while AI is being used in attacks, the ability to use AI effectively to reduce false positives and streamline investigations has lagged.

I saw this firsthand. The number of investigations was relentless, and the growing attack surface, especially in the cloud, was making it near impossible to keep up. We were pushing senior analysts to the point where it was unsustainable.

Empowering the Front Lines

One of my key objectives at OG&E was to empower Level 1 and Level 2 analysts to handle a wider range of investigations, specifically focused on cloud threats we were facing. I knew that if we could reduce the burden on our senior analysts and provide our less experienced analysts with the tools and knowledge they needed, we could make a real difference.

This is where Stream.Security came in. Stream’s Cloud Twin technology brought cloud context to our SecOps team via real-time cloud threat detection and response capabilities. The Stream platform enabled our SecOps team to quickly identify attack paths across all elements of their rapidly changing cloud infrastructure, assess the potential impact of breaches, eliminate false positives, and accelerate mean time to response (MTTR). By allowing us to visualize the full storyline of an attack and harness artificial intelligence to streamline investigations and response, Stream improved productivity for our over-burdened SecOps team.  These efficiency gains, and their potential to positively impact our team, were a major factor in my decision to choose and deploy Stream.  The promise of reducing alert fatigue and empowering more junior analysts by guiding them through the response process is critical to limiting burnout.  

Stream Security’s CloudTwin platform and its real-time detection and response capabilities are a game-changer. They provide:

• Intelligent Triage: AI helps prioritize alerts and filter out noise, allowing analysts to focus on the most critical threats.

• Guided Investigations: Stream automates key investigation steps, providing analysts with clear guidance and context.

• Automated Response: Stream automates response actions, reducing the time and effort required to contain threats.

These capabilities allow SecOps teams to leverage the skills across the entire team, reducing the burden on senior analysts and providing junior analysts with valuable experience. Stream’s CloudTwin empowers security teams to respond to threats faster and more effectively, reducing team stress and improving overall security posture.  In the end, the impact Stream had on my team’s job satisfaction proved a major factor in my decision to join the company.  

Beyond Technology: Taking Care of Our Teams

While technology is essential, it's not the only solution. Here are some other recommendations for CISOs looking to combat SOC analyst burnout:

• Encourage analysts to take breaks, use their vacation time, and disconnect from work when they're off the clock.

• Invest in training that keeps analysts up-to-date on the latest threats and technologies.

• Create a culture of open communication and collaboration where analysts feel comfortable escalating concerns.

• Acknowledge and appreciate the hard work of your analysts.

• Automate mundane tasks, including playbooks and alert triage.

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By combining the right technology with a supportive and proactive approach, security leaders can create a SOC environment where analysts can thrive. Let’s work together to protect our teams and our organizations from the devastating effects of burnout.

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