Page 203 - Cyber Defense eMagazine March 2024

The Cybersecurity Implications of Talent Shortages and Inadequate Network Investment

As business leaders, CIOs must ensure company-wide adherence to security programs that help promote
uptime and decrease downtime. Nevertheless, it is challenging to maintain best security practices when
there is a lack of experienced network engineers. Technology professionals, like network engineers, are
so high in demand they exceed the supply; according to Gartner, almost 86% of CIOs reported facing
more competition for qualified candidates. Additionally, network engineers are retiring at a worrying rate.
The global study of CIOs found that 86% of US-based CIOs predict that at least 25% of their network
engineers will retire in the next five years.

The lack of personnel will likely increase the mismanagement of networks, thereby allowing
cybercriminals to exploit vulnerabilities easily, negatively affecting business continuity. In fact, 95% of US
CIOs stated that a lack of engineers resulted in a greater inability to manage networks. At the same time,
inadequate network investment – such as not implementing proper software and network upgrades – can
expose businesses to more cybersecurity threats. That same study, which also surveyed network
engineers, revealed that 59% of US-based network engineers felt insufficient investments increased the
risk of cyberattacks and/or downtime. Alarmingly, 27% of US network engineers are currently looking to
leave their organizations because of inadequate funding.

Understaffed Teams Can Combat Cyberattacks with Out of Band Management

CIOs are rightfully concerned about the cybersecurity implications of talent shortages. However, there
are several solutions, like Out of Band management, that CIOs can deploy to help their limited teams
more effectively manage business networks. Out of Band management provides a secure connection to
IT network environments, enabling engineers to access and manage networks from local and remote
sites, even during an outage caused by a cyberattack. In fact, by setting up serial console servers,
engineers will have an alternative path via a separate management plane to perform remediation on
physical or virtually connected network devices.

Should malware or ransomware cause a breach, engineers can use Out of Band management to isolate
the incident by locking down network elements and prohibiting access to impacted equipment through a
console port. Likewise, engineers can leverage these network solutions to temporarily disconnect WAN
connections and shut down servers to protect private data. Should network assets remain inaccessible,
leading Out of Band solutions permit engineers to power off using remote PDU control capabilities and
rebuild device configurations via the console port.

Out of Band solutions empower shorthanded network and IT teams to do more with less, helping them
not only streamline remediation processes but also optimize everyday management. Specifically, it gives
network engineers the visibility to make more informed decisions in real time. Also, best-in-class offerings
include automation features, such as automatic configuration and preemptive failover, which help reduce
time-consuming processes while preventing downtime for under-pressure engineers. Likewise, some Out
of Band solutions will send automated SMS alerts to employees concerning IT infrastructure, ISP or –
most importantly – cybersecurity-related incidents.

Cyber Defense eMagazine – March 2024 Edition 203
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