Cyber attacks have grown in intensity and frequency in recent years and more enterprises have been tasked with strict defense over their networks. In fact, in a recent annual technology spending intentions study done by The Enterprise Strategy Group, two key themes emerged:
- Cyber security continues to be a top priority driving technology spending. When asked about the business initiatives — i.e., goals for the entire company, not just IT — that will drive the most technology spending over the next 12 months, more than half of respondents cited strengthening cyber security and/or regulatory compliance assurance.
- Cyber security is one of the top areas of IT skills shortages.
As more enterprises dig deeper into cyber security – knowing their security posture and potential vulnerabilities – the industry has further solidified itself as both indispensable and vital to day-to-day operations. So, in October 2018, we asked ‘what’s coming to cyber security in 2019?'
Read the results: "Cyber Security Challenges, Focuses 2019"
“The on-going acute shortage of cyber security skills is about more than the large number of open cyber security positions, it’s also a function of the specific skills required to secure an increasingly complicated environment inclusive of mobile knowledge workers and the extensive use of public cloud services,” says Doug Cahill, Group Director and Senior Analyst for ESG. “In addition to higher education programs, advances in automation and machine learning to improve efficiency, and cyber security services are front and center in addressing this perennial cyber security challenge.”
See Related: “Top 5 Cyber Security Breaches of 2019 So Far”
While Cahill predicts a focus on new technologies to help with the skills shortage, the general sentiment of the cyber security market first of the year overall, was generally positive (79.37%).
Six months later, Cyber Security Hub is checking in with a brief audience survey (May, 2019) to benchmark what has happened so far, and is calling on our audience to help be a part of the latest report to release in June. We will compare the results from first half 2019, in order to see if challenges or focuses have changed or shifted as the year (and industry) is quickly moving forward.
Click here to read the original report and check back in June to see the results of the cyber security challenges and focuses checkpoint.