Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2024. Read them in this 16th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
How AI and SolarWinds Are Reshaping Cybersecurity
By Eoin Hinchy, Co-Founder & CEO, and Thomas Kinsella, Co-Founder & CCO, at Tines
Venture capital funding in cybersecurity is still available. Activity is down from its 2021 record highs but investors are keeping faith in the sector as spending on security – and the share of technology budgets allocated to security – continues to grow.
However, security has not been immune to the economic pressures causing other VC-backed companies to lay off employees, raise down rounds, or go bust entirely. Some security startups achieved unicorn status with seven-figure or low eight-figure revenue. Others had strong products but lacked a clear way to monetize or grew too fast. That’s not sustainable.
In 2024, we’ll see companies snapped up by partners or competitors in a wave of consolidation. The companies that survive – and thrive – will have strong growth metrics, an efficient business model, and the massive potential VC firms crave.
Read on for five predictions from Eoin Hinchy, co-founder and CEO at Tines, and Thomas Kinsella, the company’s co-founder and CCO, on how generative AI and the SEC charges against the SolarWinds CISO are reshaping cybersecurity.
Eoin Hinchy, Co-Founder & CEO:
For attackers, AI is a trusty sidekick. For defenders, it’s a game-changer.
“For all the FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) about an AI arms race between attackers and defenders in cybersecurity, AI is proving to be far more of an asset for security teams than hackers. Generative AI is helping bad actors write malware and phishing emails, but there was no shortage of malware before AI and people were already happy to click on phishing attempts.
For defenders, on the other hand, AI has been a game changer. The powerful technology is tailor-made for solving security team’s most-pressing challenges: too much data, too many tedious tasks, and not enough time, budget, or people. AI is democratizing cyber defense by quickly summarizing vast swaths of data, normalizing query languages across different tools, and removing the need for security practitioners to be coding experts. In 2024, we’ll see AI’s impact in automation as defenders use AI to make incident response more efficient. AI is a once-in-a-decade leap forward, and it’s carrying cyber defenders farther than hackers.
Natural language will pave the way for the next evolution of no-code.
“Automation is only effective when implemented by teams on the frontline. Five years ago, the best way to place powerful automation in the hands of non-technical teams was via low- or no-code interfaces. Now, with AI chatbots that let people use natural language, every single team member – from sales to security – is technical enough to put automation to work solving their own unique problems. The breakthrough in AI was the new ability to iterate in natural language, simply asking an LLM to do something a bit differently, then slightly differently again. Generative AI and LLMs are obliterating barriers to entry, like no-code tools once did for the need to know how to code, and no-code will be the next barrier to fall. We’ve already moved from programming languages like Python to Microsoft Excel or drag-and-drop interfaces. Next year, we will see more and more AI chat functions replace no-code interfaces. We can expect non-technical teams throughout organizations embracing automation in ways they never thought possible. Natural language is the future on the frontline.
Thomas Kinsella, Co-Founder & CCO:
The SolarWinds charges have raised the stakes for CISOs.
“Salaries, performance bonuses, and professional reputations are no longer the only things at stake for CISOs. Now, as they plan for 2024 in the wake of charges against the SolarWinds CISO, security leaders know their personal liberty is potentially on the line.
It’s difficult to make CISOs responsible when so many things are outside their control. However, regulators are making clear that – much like CFOs must fairly present their company’s financial position – CISOs are accountable for stating the material truth of their cybersecurity posture. The Uber CISOs conviction already showed leaders must be transparent about breaches. Now, the same applies to policies. If they claim to have access restrictions and a secure software development lifecycle, they better actually have them.
The SEC’s decision will raise standards across the industry as companies invest in new tools and take a closer look at their existing tech stack. Expect security leaders to leverage automation in order to achieve those elevated standards, maximize their budget and team, and deal with the deluge of alerts new tools provide.
CISOs will demand additional budget – and the ear of the CEO.
“The increased stakes facing CISOs will have sweeping ramifications for the role. CISOs, knowing they might have to ‘take the fall’ for security failings, will demand a robust cybersecurity budget, headcount, and tooling – or find a company willing to provide them.
Security leaders are also going to become louder voices in the C-suite. CISOs will bring more issues to the attention of the board or risk committee, forcing the entire company to accept the risk rather than shouldering it alone. Expect more cybersecurity issues to escalate to a boardroom issue. The chain of command may also shift as CISOs who currently report to a CIO or CTO look for a direct line to the CEO. These added layers of reporting and responsibility may initially slow the pace of innovation as companies catch up to the new security standard.”
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Eoin Hinchy is the co-founder and CEO of Tines, the trusted leader in smart, secure workflows. Born in Ireland, Hinchy earned degrees in electronic engineering and computer engineering, then a master’s degree in security and forensic computing at Dublin City University and an MBA at Imperial College London. Hinchy began his career as a software engineer on Deloitte’s security team before joining eBay’s global threat management team. He rose to lead the company’s European security team, where he dealt with a data breach that stole 145 million user records. Hinchy’s experience there and as DocuSign’s senior director of security operations gave him first-hand knowledge of the problems that security teams face. In 2018, Hinchy set out to solve those problems by automating tedious workflows, dramatically reducing the likelihood of incidents and ensuring teams throughout organizations can respond to any incidents that do occur much faster – and without writing a single line of code.
Thomas Kinsella is the co-founder and COO of Tines, the trusted leader in smart, secure workflows. A native of Ireland, Thomas graduated from Gonzaga College SJ and earned a degree in management science and information system studies from Trinity College Dublin. Before starting Tines with co-founder Eoin Hinchy, he held cybersecurity positions at Deloitte, eBay and Docusign, where he rose to senior director of security operations. During the first decade of his career, Thomas experienced firsthand the amount of time wasted on manual security work, an experience that prompted him to join Hinchy in founding Tines in 2018.
