Third-Annual CRITICALSTART Research Report reveals persistent challenges and some silver linings

It’s back! For the third year in a row, we have surveyed SOC professionals from across the industry to learn more about the issues and challenges facing the cybersecurity community and its workers. As the old saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same…

Just like in 2018 and 2019, alert overload continues to be a serious problem plaguing our industry. What’s worse is that, in an attempt to combat alert overload, nearly half (49%) of our 2020 survey respondents reported that they are turning off high-volume alerting features when there is too much noise to process. We don’t have to tell you this, but it only takes one.

On the positive side, training was up, turnover was down, and the use of mobile apps for investigating, escalating, and remediating incidents and threats from any place at any time is nearing 50-percent of all respondents.

And, don’t worry, it was 2020 after all, so we even gathered some data on the impact COVID has had on our industry!

Check out the report for yourself, share on your social channels, and let us know what you think!