Cybersecurity Burnout and Organisational Culture with Yanya Viskovich & Eve Parmiter

Welcome to Razorwire! In today’s episode, we take a look at the often-overlooked issue of professional burnout within the cybersecurity field. Joining us are two esteemed guests: Yanya Viskovich, a cyber resilience authority, and Eve Parmiter, a clinical traumatologist and consultant, both of whom bring their interdisciplinary insights to our discussion.

Today's conversation uncovers the critical yet not-often-discussed crisis of burnout amongst our cyber defenders. Yanya shares her personal journey through the throes of burnout and her subsequent passion for addressing the human factors in cybersecurity and Eve gives us her clinical perspective, providing an in depth understanding of the steps that lead to burnout and how we can move towards prevention and recovery. Together, we explore strategies for cultivating an organisational culture that is resilient against burnout and the positive repercussions this can have on cybersecurity effectiveness.

Key Talking Points

Personal Insights from the Field: Yanya recounts her dynamic career path and the vulnerable moments of burnout she encountered during the global pandemic, offering listeners a glimpse into the human side of the cybersecurity equation.

Clinical Wisdom for Cyber Warriors: Eve, with her therapeutic background, maps out the psychophysiological terrain of burnout and provides actionable tactics for information security professionals to identify and manage their stressors before they escalate.

-Building a Burnout-Resilient Culture: Gain critical advice on creating strong, collaborative and health-focused workplace cultures that prioritise learning and vulnerability to fortify against cybersecurity threats as well as professional burnout.

Don’t miss out on this conversation, which is more relevant now than ever. Tune in to unlock techniques that will not only defend your organisation’s digital assets but also safeguard the wellbeing of its most valuable guardians - its people.

Embracing Failure for Cybersecurity Improvement:

"We need to have a tolerance for failure, but an intolerance for incompetence. We need to invite cultures that invite questions and difficult ones, and that invites people to challenge the status quo, to invite people to say, ‘yeah, I've noticed that something's wrong here’, or ‘I see this as a potential risk and I'm raising it.’"

Yanya Viskovich

Listen to this episode on your favourite podcasting platform: https://razorwire.captivate.fm/listen

In this episode, we covered the following topics:

- Appreciation of Crisis Management: A look into how the efforts of infosec professionals are often undervalued, especially when resolving critical issues during crises.

- Post-Lockdown Loss of Mentorship: An exploration of the pandemic's impact leading to the exit of experienced professionals from the cybersecurity field and the subsequent loss of mentorship for up-and-comers.

- Organisational Culture and Failure: The importance of creating supportive cultures within organisations that encourage learning from mistakes and destigmatising failure.

- Human Factor in Cybersecurity: Highlights the crucial role of considering human behaviour and psychology in cybersecurity strategies, alongside technology and process optimisation.

- Stress and High Burnout Rates: Insights into the abnormally high stress levels within the cybersecurity industry, leading to significant burnout among professionals.

- Industry's Perception on the 'Department of No': Discusses the challenging perception of infosec teams as constructionistic.

- Power of Recognition: We...