In a recent survey conducted by Fortinet, more than 80% of CISOs surveyed believe that the risk of cyberattacks is increasing. Worryingly, almost a quarter of those also believe the attacker’s capabilities surpass their own abilities to defend against them.

When asked why, CISOs highlighted issues with shortages in budgets and skilled professionals, along with an attack surface that grows larger and more sophisticated everyday. The attack surface grows larger and more sophisticated at a pace faster than deployed defensive technology is capable of preventing.

CISOs Under Pressure

While this information may paint a dismal view of network and data breach prevention for the future – it does reveal to us as IT security professionals how we might be able to help and the likely direction of spending in the IT industry. Ultimately it seems to me that those who mix best-of-breed solutions, with flexible pricing and have the services to match, are going to be seen as favorable in the eyes of CISOs under pressure.

Maybe even more insightful was that protecting customer personal data and the brand reputation of the company was cited as the number one priority for defense. Protection of intellectual property (IP) came in a mere fifth, in comparison. Most likely as a consequence of the GDPR and other data protection legislation around the world, of which we have witnessed a double-whammy of punishment on some of the worlds most recognizable brands, such as Equifax, British Airways and Marriott Hotels.  Along with Universities, K-12, and too many government agencies to name.

It would seem that CISOs now see these risks as quantifiably more impactful on their businesses than the loss of their own IP – which while fantastically at odds with the general thinking five years ago, I am sure data protection regulators are pleased to see.

How We Help CISOs

CISOs and their security teams are pulled in many directions – vulnerability management, incidence response, deployment and tuning of security tools, application security, dashboarding and reporting, etc.

• Do you know if you are working on the right projects?
• Where are the riskiest areas of your attack surface?
• Can you quantify the progress you are making?

Our partner Balbix enables you to address these challenges and make the right decisions in order to transform your cybersecurity posture and reduce breach risk.  Image a technology that can actually predict where your next breach will occur with 95% probability.  

So, while the results of the survey are not for particularly optimistic reading – we think we can help to get you into that 20% of CISOs who were quietly and confidently unperturbed.

Try a free 30 day trial with Balbix today.  Complete the form and one of our specialist will be back to you shortly.