Human Dimensions of Cybersecurity Operations: Survey Insights from SOC Professionals in Malaysia

Security Operations Centres (SOCs) form the operational core of cyber defence strategies across the world. They are tasked with ensuring continuous monitoring, triage, detection, and response to ever-evolving threats. However, conventional performance metrics used to evaluate SOC efficacy—such as Mean Time to Detect (MTTD), Mean Time to Respond (MTTR), and false positive rates—primarily assess system throughput while overlooking the psychosocial realities of the human analysts who underpin these metrics. This paper presents the findings of a quantitative workforce study conducted among 175 Malaysian SOC professionals across internal, hybrid, and managed security service provider (MSSP) environments. Using a Likert-based adaptation of the NIOSH Worker Well-Being Questionnaire (WellBQ), the study investigates stress, burnout, alert fatigue, task autonomy, psychological safety, tooling efficacy, and career development perceptions. Findings reveal that 73.1% of respondents experience emotional tiredness at least “Sometimes,” while 78.9% agree that more automation would improve their well-being. Notably, 68.0% reported having opportunities to grow and develop their careers within their SOC environments. These insights highlight the need for a paradigm shift in SOC performance measurement—one that integrates human-centric indicators alongside traditional technical KPIs. The paper concludes with empirically grounded recommendations for embedding well-being frameworks into operational security management to ensure sustainable, high-performing cybersecurity teams.