Security — It’s one of the most difficult, sensitive, important jobs around. On a regular basis, physical and cyber security personnel literally put their lives on the line, ensuring that the companies and firms they serve stay safe. The safety and wellbeing of staff are in their hands. In many instances, whether or not crucial — and valuable — assets stay out of the hands of bad actors falls squarely on the shoulders of security personnel and managers.
Now, during this Mental Health Awareness month, Security Magazine’s Editor in Chief Rachelle Blair-Frasier spotlights why it is so important that the mental health of these security staff, managers, and stakeholders is protected and put in focus.
“With the focus often being on protecting others, the mental well-being of security professionals can be overlooked, and that can not only compromise the individual, but the overall effectiveness of security operations as well,” Blair-Frasier writes. “That is why it is important for security leaders to foster a culture that promotes mental health awareness helping to prevent burnout among their security teams.”
‘Success is everyone feeling and being safe’
If the overall mental health and wellbeing of these individuals is protected, they will be able to do their jobs better and keep everyone under their care safe and protected.
Mike Hasselbrink, director of physical security at University of Alabama at Birmingham, uses the example of active shooter response plan trainings. He states that “success is everyone feeling and being safe and secure,” which means that built into these preparedness plans are contingencies for physical security staff mental health.
The anxiety and stress that can be fomented by these active shooter threats has to be addressed as part of the training. If a security professional doesn’t know how to handle these stressors, they will be unable to properly respond to a shooting in real time.
Shielding against burnout
Meg West, IBM’s X-Force Cybersecurity Incident Response Consultant, touches on the important issue of burnout.
“The thing that I always tell myself is, ‘It’s okay to feel burnt out. It’s okay to take breaks.’ There was a very long time in my career… where I was just go, go, go. It was, ‘How can I get to the next position? How can I get the next certification? How can I achieve the next thing, get accepted to speak at the next conference?’” West says in the article. “Unfortunately, you get to this spot where you’re like, ‘Man, I don’t want to spend my time after work studying for a certification.’ And people feel ashamed or guilty about that, because unfortunately, there’s this air within cybersecurity that if you’re not constantly doing cybersecurity, then you’re not worthy of being in the field, or you’re not a good enough cybersecurity professional. And I’m here to tell you that that’s completely inaccurate.
It’s okay to ask for help
The big takeaway here is that it’s okay to ask for help. It’s necessary to take a deep breath and have a break. Security is a field where one has to be ever vigilant. Burnout and exhaustion are real factors in play. So is anxiety. So is stress and fear over one’s own personal safety while trying to protect others.
This all means that people working in physical and cyber security have to prioritize their own mental health. The safety of others — and themselves — is at stake. Strength comes from centering mental health.
For the full article, visit Security Magazine here.
Peter Cavicchia II 