Back in 1995, in the early days of the world wide web, there was an amazing assignment to help understand the impact of "the internet" on a massive electronics company. As the team sat down and came up with predictions, little did they know the timelines would differ significantly from reality.
When flipping through that report now, it becomes clear that they were right about 90% of the things that happened, but wrong on 100% of the timelines. For instance, it was confidently stated, “The majority of books will be sold online within 5 years,” but it took 15. Similarly, the prediction that "big retail will lose share to online markets within 10 years" also took much longer to materialize.
This tendency to accurately predict seismic shifts in how we interact with technology, while grossly overestimating their speed of adoption, is not unique to the past. The tech world has long touted the potential of AI to revolutionize our lives. In 2018, the introduction of IBM Watson for Cyber seemed like a significant step forward. However, the true tipping point had not yet been reached. The question remained: when would AI truly infiltrate our lives?
As an industry veteran and CEO of a cybersecurity company, my focus has been on understanding what these new technologies mean for organizations and how they can be harnessed to stay ahead of the curve. Over the past several years, AI and automation have taken center stage in this pursuit.
Today, automation is no longer just the future of cybersecurity; it’s the present. Waves of business leaders are investing their time, money, and resources into adopting these technologies. In fact, according to a new study from Wakefield Research, 80% of organizations indicated that they plan to increase investments in cybersecurity automation in the coming year, with the majority expecting a significant 6-10% increase. This commitment to automation remains strong even in the wake of widespread economic uncertainty. Here’s why they’re betting on automation:
1. Automation closes talent gaps, eases burnout It’s no secret that the industry is facing a critical cybersecurity talent shortage. This issue has even made its way into the national spotlight with the White House’s highly-anticipated National Cybersecurity Strategy, where strengthening the cyber workforce was outlined as a key priority.
The lack of cybersecurity professionals presents obvious security concerns, as understaffed security operations centers (SOC) are especially vulnerable to attacks. However, what is often overlooked is how this shortage negatively impacts existing security professionals and their organizations. These professionals are expected to battle ever-expanding attack surfaces and rapidly evolving threats, all while being unrealistically expected to “do more with less." This situation leads to high levels of burnout and turnover.
For understaffed SOCs and stressed-out security professionals, adopting automation offers a realistic path forward. Contrary to what some might assume, security practitioners are actually welcoming automation and AI with open arms. A recent survey of 200 IT security professionals showed that 100% of respondents agree that increasing automation in the security operations center (SOC) would be helpful to fill staffing gaps in their teams. Specifically, they found that automation was most helpful for completing tasks related to incident analysis (54%), landscape analysis of applications and data sources (54%), and threat detection and response (53%).
The common thread among these findings is that automation helps analysts minimize redundant, time-consuming tasks that keep them from focusing on the threats that matter most.
2. Cybersecurity resilience equals business resilience At the leadership level, cybersecurity is better understood and more highly prioritized than ever before. It's not surprising that 91% of business leaders believe there will be a catastrophic cyber event in the next two years, and 88% of board members classify cybersecurity as a business risk vs. technology risk alone.
The devastating data breaches and ransomware attacks that have dominated headlines, damaged reputations, and put countless individuals at risk have made it clear that building and maintaining a bulletproof security posture is bigger than an IT problem—it's a mission-critical problem that dictates overall business health. Organizations can no longer afford slip-ups or oversights.
Despite mass layoffs, budget cuts, funding shortages, and fears of a recession creeping into all sectors of the economy, organizations are still prioritizing their investments in bulking up cybersecurity defenses. But where are they allocating the money?
They're investing in cybersecurity automation.
And for good reason—100% of security professionals reported that using AI in cybersecurity resulted in positive business impacts, including reduced downtime, increased revenue, lower costs associated with hiring and training new employees, and more efficient security processes.
No human being can keep up with the sheer volumes of data and alerts that flood the SOC on a daily basis. Relying on people, especially understaffed teams, to protect organizations from cyberattacks is not enough.
When it comes to cybersecurity, time is of the essence. The longer it takes to remediate threats, the more costly an attack becomes. Seconds can mean the difference between millions of dollars in damage and exposing sensitive customer information. Adopting automation is the only guarantee that businesses can detect and respond to threats in real time, resolving them before they even become a problem.
If you're still not convinced, consider this: IDC predicts that by 2026, 20% of large enterprise organizations will migrate to autonomous security operations centers accessed by distributed teams for faster remediation, incident management, and response.
Now is the time to get ahead of the curve and invest in an automated future. Organizations depend on it.
This blog was written by the Activated Solutions team. If you are a business owner or an individual concerned about your cybersecurity, it's time to take action. Activated Solutions can help you to protect your business and personal data from potential cyber threats.
Contact Activated Solutions today to learn more about how they can help you protect your business. With our expertise and commitment to cybersecurity, you can have peace of mind knowing that you are taking proactive steps to protect yourself and your business from potential data breaches.
For more information, please visit: activatedsolutions.ca.
Sources
Van Zadelhoff, Marc. “Automation is no longer the future of cybersecurity: It's the present.” Security Magazine, 5 June 2023, https://www.securitymagazine.com/blogs/14-security-blog/post/99424-automation-is-no-longer-the-future-of-cybersecurity-its-the-present. Accessed 7 June 2023.
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