Incident Responders Undergo Great Mental Strain While Responding To Major Cybersecurity Incidents: Report

Latest report suggests 77 per cent of Cybersecurity Incident Responders in India experience extreme or considerable mental strain as a result of responding to a major cybersecurity incident.

The report surmised that these responders are primarily driven by a strong sense of duty to protect others; a responsibility that’s increasingly challenged by the surge of disruptive attacks.

Ransomware has increased the psychological demands of Incident Responders (IR) for 94 per cent of respondents in India.

Over a third of incident responders were attracted to the field by a sense of duty to protect and opportunity to help others and businesses. For nearly 80 per cent of global respondents, this was one of the top reasons attracting them to IR, the IBM report noted.

The high demands of cybersecurity engagements also affect incident responders’ personal lives, with 68 per cent of respondents in India experiencing stress or anxiety in their daily lives. Insomnia, burnout and impact on social life or relationships followed as effects respondents cited. Despite these challenges, the vast majority acknowledged they have a strong support system in place.

Earlier this year, Cert-In reported 6.74 lakh cyber-incidents in India during the first half of 2022 alone.

Organisations that are essential to the global economy including supply chains and the movement of goods have become prime targets for disruptive attacks. In 2021, IBM Security X-Force noted that cyberattacks against energy companies quadrupling from the year prior, while manufacturers saw more ransomware attacks than any other industry – from food manufacturers to medical devices, cars and steel manufacturers. As cyberattacks threaten essential services to daily needs, incident responders in these industries are faced with more pressure to defend the digital front line.

IBM X-Force saw a nearly 25 per cent rise in cybersecurity incidents its IR team engaged in from 2020 to 2021. Moreover, Check Point Software Technologies research indicates a 50 per cent increase in overall network attacks per week in 2021 compared to 2020.