Privacy Pros Have More Stress, Smaller Budgets: ISACA
Most privacy professionals say their jobs have become more stressful during the past five years, the Information Systems Audit and Control Association said Tuesday. ISACA said it surveyed 1,600 privacy professionals worldwide for a 2025 report.
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In addition to finding that 63% of respondents said their jobs are more stressful now than five years ago, 34% said they're significantly more stressful. Top reasons cited for the stress were rapidly evolving technology (63%), compliance challenges (61%) and resource shortages (59%). Also, the surveyed privacy professionals said the top three obstacles for privacy programs are a complex international legal and regulatory landscape (38%), lack of competent resources (37%) and risk management for new technologies (36%).
Despite these challenges, 43% said their privacy budget is underfunded and 48% expect a budget decrease within a year, ISACA said.
“In an increasingly complex international regulatory environment, often with lackluster resources, it is understandable that many privacy professionals are feeling strain from their efforts to stay compliant and keep their organizations’ data safe,” said Niel Harper, ISACA board vice chair. “Addressing these challenges and getting practitioners the support they need will be vital to not only ensure a healthy privacy workforce, but also to maintain data integrity and security, and avoid potential harm to data subjects.”
In Europe, about 45% of privacy professionals think they are underfunded, up from 41% last year, said ISACA in a separate survey released Tuesday. While the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation has been effective for nearly seven years, only 38% of European professionals said they were confident in their organization’s ability to safeguard sensitive data.