Is Your CISO Burnt Out yet?

The aim of the research was to investigate the extent to which a sample of the Australian cybersecurity industry are impacted by Burnout. A cohort of 119 cyber security professionals, 32% of which were CISOs, completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). The MBI defines Burnout as a combination of three dimensions, namely, emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced professional efficacy. Gender and Job Role were significant predictors of emotional exhaustion, but not depersonalisation nor professional efficacy. The interaction between gender and job role was also significant. For emotional exhaustion, female respondents who worked in security consultant roles tended to score higher than their male counterparts. All roles and genders tended to score in the high range on the MBI when compared to the Australian general population, indicating a need for future research and industry attention. In addition, some scores met or exceeded the average level of burnout experienced by frontline healthcare workers. Left unaddressed, this high level of workplace Burnout may add to the wellbeing and retention problems developing within the cybersecurity community. These results indicate that organisations should look to measure the wellbeing of their own cyber workforce and implement meaningful change if they wish to keep their cyber talent and enable them to thrive at work.