Will Automation Threaten IT Security Jobs?

Most experts agree that the face of the security industry is in the throes of transformation - the extent of those changes, however, are very much up for debate. Due to the huge volumes of information that we now send and receive daily, it's understandably difficult for human beings to keep up. This has lead to an increase in automation in many different industries.

Positive and Negative Impacts Automation Will Have on IT Security Jobs

Is Automation Good News or Bad News for the Security Industry

The opinion as to whether or not automation is a positive or negative thing for the security industry is currently divided. Some people say that while it won't necessarily affect the jobs that these professionals have to do, it will likely affect the demand - meaning that there will suddenly be fewer jobs to go around.

Others argue that while automation can help eliminate risk and improve efficiency, it will never be a true replacement for human judgment and thus, it will only be a tool that makes the lives of security professionals easier, not harder. The argument is that because the automation tools will only ever be as good as the security professionals that develop them, one will never replace the other and they will instead compliment one another into the future. It's an argument that is difficult not to see.

The Changes IT Automation Will Bring About

Because IT automation is designed to increase productivity and eliminate waste in normal processes, one of the universally agreed upon changes that it will bring to the security industry is that operational investment in terms of actual employees will go up across the board - at least in the short term. As companies make the shift towards the adoption of automation technologies, they will need highly skilled individuals to deploy and maintain them. This may require existing professionals to adjust their skill set until these systems become reliable enough to operate as much as possible of their own accord.

Security experts at Symantec believe that the human decision making component to IT security will not change, but the specific decisions they're making likely will. Automation and similar types of tools are going to play an increasingly important role in identify threats and observing trends that are then presented to human employees by way of actionable intelligence. Those employees will then be the ones to have to make the call regarding what to do, but because the intelligence itself is so good it will be an easier call to make.

If security automation were a game of football, computer systems would now be responsible for getting the ball down the field to the 10 yard line and human security professionals would carry it the rest of the way, as opposed to working the entire field like it had been in the past.