Key Points:

• Alert fatigue is a major problem in cybersecurity caused by an overwhelming number of alerts from security tools. This can lead to missed threats, delayed responses, and burnout for security professionals.
• To reduce alert fatigue, security teams need to use tools that prioritise real threats and automate repetitive tasks. They should also receive proper training and have clear communication channels with HR.
• HR teams can help by ensuring workloads are distributed fairly, offering mental health support, and hiring additional staff if needed. They should also review security tools and workflows regularly to make sure they are effective.
• Metomic offers a low-noise data security solution for your data security needs, allowing you to track sensitive data across SaaS, cloud, and GenAI tools and avoid alert fatigue.

Security teams are spoilt for choice when it comes to cybersecurity and data security tools that can help them identify risks within their ecosystem.

But with this comes an increase in notifications and alerts that can be overwhelming for any team member.

What is alert fatigue in cybersecurity?

Alert fatigue occurs when cybersecurity professionals are bombarded with alerts, to the point that they become overwhelmed. Due to the nature of their role, they may have multiple security tools in place which can exacerbate the amount of notifications they receive, leaving them feeling anxious, tired, and potentially unable to deal effectively with the alerts coming through.

As a result of the excessive noise, security teams may struggle to identify genuine threats when they arise. To combat this, it’s crucial that security tools are primed to be accurate, limiting the number of false positives, and prioritising the alerts that individuals should be aware of.

What causes it?

Alert fatigue can be caused by a number of factors. Firstly, the security tools on hand may not be set up to triage risks for security teams, making it difficult to distinguish between real threats, and false positives. On top of this, the complex setup of the IT environment with limited holistic tools to help consolidate alerts, leaves security professionals overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information they need to process every day.

With 59% of security teams understaffed, there are less people to handle persistent incoming alerts, leading to fatigue and potential burnout for individuals who may be working with limited resources. Stretched budgets can also result in inadequate training when it comes to configuring security tools in the first instance, or interpreting alerts when they appear.

Limited automated processes can also cause alert fatigue to be exacerbated, particularly when it comes to daily alerts for the same issue. Security professionals may find their time is taken up responding to alerts that have no real consequence, rather than dealing with more serious incidents.

What is an example of alert fatigue?

One example of alert fatigue could be a security professional utilising a data security platform to scan for sensitive data in SaaS applications like Slack. The tool may be configured to send alerts whenever any piece of sensitive data is shared in any channel across the platform.

A tool such as Metomic would make this easy for them, by triaging risks and alerting them to only the highest priorities that need attention. However, if our security professional was using another data security tool, they may struggle to see the wood for the trees.

They could be inundated with notifications about every sensitive data point, even those which would be deemed a low priority within the business. This could lead to the security team missing genuine risks within the ecosystem, and becoming desensitised when real danger is involved.

What are false positives in cyber security, and how do you reduce them?

False positives are alerts that incorrectly indicate a threat or malicious activity. These occur when security tools misinterpret normal activities as potential threats, due to overly sensitive or poorly configured detection rules.

False positives negatively affect security teams by wasting time and resources on non-issues. This constant influx of incorrect alerts can lead to alert fatigue, causing team members to become desensitised and potentially miss genuine threats, increasing the risk of a security breach.

How to reduce false positives

• Proper configuration of security tools: Setting up data security tools correctly is crucial. This involves calibrating detection rules to align with normal activity patterns, reducing the likelihood of benign actions being flagged as threats. Conduct baseline analysis, customise alert settings, and continuously refine detection rules.
• Regular review and adjustment: Regularly reviewing alerts and adjusting settings helps maintain accuracy. Analysing alert data identifies patterns indicating false positives, which allows for fine-tuning.
• Use of advanced threat intelligence: Integrating advanced threat intelligence provides context about known threats, helping distinguish real threats from benign activities. Threat intelligence enriches alerts with contextual data and updates detection rules automatically.
• Training and awareness: Training security teams to recognise false positives is essential. Regular training sessions on the latest cyber security topics, threats and common false positives, combined with practised incident response procedures, improve discernment and response strategies.

By implementing these strategies, security teams can reduce false positives, enhancing their ability to respond to genuine threats and improving overall cybersecurity posture.

What are the potential implications and risks of alert fatigue?

There are many risks associated with alert fatigue, including:

1. Missed Threats: Perhaps the biggest risk posed by alert fatigue is the possibility of missed genuine threats. Overwhelmed security professionals, drowning in notifications, can find themselves wading through plenty of alerts without understanding which to prioritise.
2. Delayed Emergency Response: Without any urgency behind specific alerts, security professionals may not be able to respond quickly to genuine emergencies, allowing bad actors the opportunity to infiltrate systems, and an increased attack surface for them to penetrate.
3. Increased Chance of Burnout: Overwhelmed security teams can suffer burnout as a result of alert fatigue, leaving a sometimes already small workforce to manage with a stretched team.
4. Compliance Problems: Without a timely response to certain issues, companies may find themselves not complying with industry regulations that mandate a set time for issues to be resolved.
5. Loss of Trust in Security Tools: Consistent false positives can lead to a decrease in trust for security professionals who may be fed up with security tools. This loss of trust can cause genuine incidents to go undetected or for them to be met with scepticism.

To reduce the chance of this happening, security teams must look to security tools that allow them to prioritise the risks that matter to their organisation, and improve context around any alerts that come through. This can help companies better protect themselves against any incoming threats.

Strategies for Security and HR Teams to Prevent Alert Fatigue

1. Investment in cybersecurity

To avoid this becoming an issue for security teams, the importance of investment in cybersecurity should not be overlooked, and due attention must be paid to mental health concerns voiced by individuals within the team.

2. Implementing low-noise security tools

Senior members of the team should also look to implement low-noise data security tools that can prioritise genuine alerts over false positives or low-priority concerns. Where possible, organisations should also choose security tools with built-in automation so that repetitive tasks can be handled by these platforms, giving security professionals time to focus on more pressing issues.

3. Ongoing training for security teams

There should be ongoing training given to security teams so they can understand alerts that need to be prioritised, and the incident response procedure they will need to follow if there is a real emergency.

4. Clear communication channels

From an HR perspective, clear lines of communication should be set out so that security professionals can speak up when they feel they are struggling with alert fatigue. Workload should be assessed and distributed among the team so that no one individual is taking on more than they can handle. If necessary, additional team members should be hired to enable the team to work more efficiently and effectively.

5. Regular review of processes and tools

Security teams and HR teams should also ensure that processes, tools, and workflows are reviewed regularly to ensure they are the right fit for the team. If a solution isn’t working well for the organisation - for instance, if it doesn’t deliver context-rich alerts that can help security professionals make informed decisions - it should be questioned whether it is the right tool for the team to use.

6. Empowering employees with direct alerts

Security tools that also offer the option of sending employees alerts directly to make them aware of the risks they’re creating, rather than going through the security team, should also be considered as this can enable the workforce to solve their own problems, giving more time back to the security team.

Katie Barnett, Director of Cybersecurity at Toro Solutions, says,

“As cyber attacks proliferate, staff fatigue from dedicating themselves to the cause of securing their environments, but often being held solely accountable for a breach of their organisation. Cybersecurity professionals are required to have complex understanding of technical threats and defences, at a level which is rarely understood by their less technical colleagues and superiors. As a result, resourcing cybersecurity functions is not considered a priority to corporate boards or top management because it is seen as a cost rather than a business enabler and teams are often stretched too thin to meet expectations, leading to burnout.”

How can Metomic help?

Metomic offers a low-noise data security solution for your data security needs, allowing you to track sensitive data across SaaS, cloud, and GenAI tools. Its granular data control allows organisations to monitor data flow without creating unnecessary alerts, and automated data governance reduces the workload for security professionals.

From the outset, Metomic customers are set up with specific rules in place to ensure they are notified of the risks that matter to their business, rather than everything else that might come their way.

Take a virtual tour of our platform to see how Metomic can you help your organisation avoid alert fatigue.