Information Security Analysts

AUTOMATION RISK
CALCULATED
47%
risk level
POLLING
38%
Based on 593 votes
LABOR DEMAND
GROWTH
34.7%
by year 2032
WAGES
$112,000
or $53.84 per hour
Volume
163,690
as of 2022
SUMMARY
JOB SCORE
7.2/10

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Automation risk

47% (Moderate Risk)

Moderate Risk (41-60%): Occupations with a moderate risk of automation usually involve routine tasks but still require some human judgment and interaction.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Some quite important qualities of the job are difficult to automate:

  • Originality

User poll

38% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 47% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Information Security Analysts will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?






Sentiment

The following graph(s) are included wherever there is a substantial amount of votes to render meaningful data. These visual representations display user poll results over time, providing a significant indication of sentiment trends.

Sentiment over time (yearly)

Growth

Very fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Information Security Analysts' job openings is expected to rise 34.7% by 2032

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2021 and 2031
Updated projections are due 09-2023.

Wages

Very high paid relative to other professions

In 2022, the median annual wage for 'Information Security Analysts' was $112,000, or $53 per hour

'Information Security Analysts' were paid 141.8% higher than the national median wage, which stood at $46,310

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Volume

Greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2022 there were 163,690 people employed as 'Information Security Analysts' within the United States.

This represents around 0.11% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 903 people are employed as 'Information Security Analysts'.

Job description

Plan, implement, upgrade, or monitor security measures for the protection of computer networks and information. Assess system vulnerabilities for security risks and propose and implement risk mitigation strategies. May ensure appropriate security controls are in place that will safeguard digital files and vital electronic infrastructure. May respond to computer security breaches and viruses.

SOC Code: 15-1212.00

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Comments

Leave a comment

Arjun Mepa (Moderate) says
The main reason for a SOC analyst or information security analyst role will be automated is because of alert fatigue. The current model responding doesn't work anymore especially when you have thousands of alerts to deal with. No one has the time threat detection rules to for each event or a malicious event. ML will either aim to replace or optimize this.
Sep 30, 2023 at 04:39 PM
Meh says
Once "ai" models are implemented with a dash of agency/cognitive architecture to find novel vulnerabilities and models are implemented to fix those vulnerabilities in tandem, finding exploitable bugs will become increasingly difficult with little ROI for the pentesters, hunters, whatever.

It'll be a race between red and blue team businesses to implement increasingly better models. Social engineering sure, but meh honestly. Will you be able to find incredibly difficult scraps or oversights the model missed? Will it be worth the risk and investment of the pentester? Overall bleak outlook.
Aug 08, 2023 at 12:51 AM
Old Spice (No chance) says
You can't trust AI to protect your networks, it will probably be able to get manipulated by hackers in the future.
Mar 29, 2023 at 11:48 AM
Anon says
In the Cyber Threat Intelligence circles automation is already occuring. My job is being replaced by automated scripts that create and generate documentation and use APIs to scrape the data. most of it will be junk and not targeted the same way as a human but hey that's what the company is doing oh and they are asking me to work with the programmer who is literally making me firable. So angry. Would avoid this role if possible.
Feb 17, 2023 at 09:57 PM
Jack (Low) says
Social engineering risks are highly unlikely to be detected by AI.
Feb 10, 2022 at 11:14 PM
James (Low) says
Unlikely. Security analysis often have to think outside the box to find novel vulnerabilities.
Jan 31, 2022 at 04:42 AM
Richard P (Moderate) says
Could be disrupted by Quantum computers
Jan 17, 2021 at 04:22 PM
Tom says
QC could disrupt a lot or not much. Too early to really say for sure.
Jan 05, 2024 at 09:39 PM
FD says
New regulations will force the software developing companies to create less vulnerabilities in products (at the source.) Hardware vendors will similarly have to sell networked devices with secure settings programmed in by default.

This will increase the ability of automated systems to detect any remaining vulnerabilities, but will not completely remove the need for technicians to maintain, remediate, and upgrade the systems. There will still be a need to touch the hardware. Depending on individual situation, some companies will use more of AI tech than the others. We can already see something similar in the engineering, accounting, and law practice, where paralegals and drafters have not been completely replaced by software. Sole practitioners might use automation more extensively than the large corporations, but there will be a legal requirement for a human audit.

In addition, location-independent digital nomads who train themselves to use the automation tools could do a lot of accurate work in a short amount of time, as independent consultants and freelancers, and do business with multiple clients.

Making the choice to transition from repetitive and tedious manual work to automation, will be akin to transitioning from flintstones to nuclear power. Nuclear power still needs humans, and so will information security solutions.
Dec 23, 2020 at 05:42 AM
Anderson Test says
Fred should be worried
Mar 04, 2024 at 04:04 AM
Fakiha (Low) says
I believe that is is less likely because mostly automatically finding vulnerabilities may be performed by AI but it will be the security analyst to enable computer do it, help it learn by giving feedback, as the result may not always be right. AI will help make task easier and fast for security analyst
Mar 09, 2020 at 07:14 AM
Michael (Low) says
there are some areas such as malware detection and IPS , IDS that will be fully automated , but others like policy and social engineering are very hard to .
Jan 30, 2020 at 03:22 PM
frankie (Highly likely) says
Automated penetration testing
Jan 19, 2020 at 02:15 PM

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