Business Email Compromise (BEC) , Email Threat Protection , Fraud Management & Cybercrime

How the 'Great Resignation' Is Affecting Cybersecurity

Former CISO of Seattle on Addressing the Challenges of Talent Retention
Mike Hamilton, CISO, Critical Insight

People are leaving their jobs in droves during the "Great Resignation," and the cybersecurity industry is not immune to the trend. Mike Hamilton, the former CISO for the city of Seattle, warns organizations about the opportunities this presents for cybercriminals and outlines how employers can work to retain talent. "The threat activity is sky-high right now," he says, but at the same time, "our bench strength is going down."

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Hamilton says he is concerned that "really, really qualified practitioners are being fractionated into enterprise organizations and somewhat starving the midmarket." That's troubling, he says, because the midmarket includes "critical things like local governments, rural hospitals … where we really need the people."

He says cybercriminals are taking advantage of employee job dissatisfaction. "When people have committed in their minds that 'I'm leaving this place,' they tend to get sloppy," Hamilton says. They may become more careless "with the websites they surf around during the day, maybe looking for jobs, maybe trying to follow links that are kind of sketchy, where people are hanging bait in front of them concerning jobs." These behaviors exacerbate the security problem, he says.

In a video interview with Information Security Media Group, Hamilton discusses:

  • How the "Great Resignation" is affecting the cybersecurity community, which already has a talent shortage;
  • How companies can work to retain talent;
  • The open holes for cybercriminals to take advantage of this trend.

One of Critical Insight Security's founders, Hamilton has 30 years of experience in information security as a practitioner, consultant, executive and entrepreneur. As former CISO for the city of Seattle, he managed information security policy, strategy and operations for 30 government agencies. Prior to that, he was the managing consultant for VeriSign Global Security Consulting, providing expertise for hundreds of organizations, from Fortune 100 to small private colleges, and in nearly every sector. He is former vice chair for the DHS State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Government Coordinating Council and recently served as a policy adviser for the Washington State Office of the CIO.


About the Author

Anna Delaney

Anna Delaney

Director, ISMG Productions

An experienced broadcast journalist, Delaney conducts interviews with senior cybersecurity leaders around the world. Previously, she was editor-in-chief of the website for The European Information Security Summit, or TEISS. Earlier, she worked at Levant TV and Resonance FM and served as a researcher at the BBC and ITV in their documentary and factual TV departments.




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