Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2024. Read them in this 16th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Navigating The Evolving World Of Cybersecurity
By Ron Reiter, Co-Founder & CTO, Sentra
Much like threats themselves, the cybersecurity industry is in a state of constant change. In recent years, these changes seem to have accelerated as organizations of all kinds deal with new and emerging risks that threaten to upend operations. As an industry, we’re tasked with mitigating these challenges.
However, the last 12 months will illustrate that more work needs to be done to ensure that organizations properly protect themselves from emerging threats set to take root in 2024 and beyond.
In this article, I’ll explore three potential issues businesses and government entities will likely be forced to consider in 2024 as we all continue to navigate an ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape.
As the stakes get higher, CISOs cannot ‘quiet quit’
In the wake of the charges against SolarWinds, and a reassessment of Uber’s CISO conviction, security leaders are facing much higher stakes for their mistakes; it is no longer just a CISO’s job on the line – it’s their personal liberties too. While it is naive to place all of the blame on security leads following a breach, the SEC’s decision serves as a wakeup call for restructuring the CISO job description.
CISOs can no longer be passive. They must pay attention to whether they have the proper cybersecurity budget, headcount, tooling and what their tech stack looks like. If the stated material truth of their cybersecurity posture is lacking, they either have to be brutally honest or face the consequences. They also have to cut through the noise and demand the ear of the CEO when reporting risk. By becoming the company advocate for incident response, CISOs can more accurately estimate risk and utilize their budgets to better protect their companies. Taking on these actions with added layers of reporting and responsibility will ensure that companies are up to the new security standards and that the CISO is not shouldering all the risk alone.
International ransom payments will remain a business decision
In November 2023, all 50 members of the International Ransomware Initiative endorsed a policy that “relevant institutions under national government authority should not pay ransomware extortion demands.” Unfortunately, this latest declaration will have little to no impact on the payment of ransoms, especially for the private sector, or state and local governments. While these types of statements are made with the best intentions, they will not change the actions of malicious actors or how affected parties respond to them. In 2024, and for the foreseeable future, ransomware payments will be viewed as a business decision. It will be up to organizations and governments to analyze the outcomes and impact of paying or not paying a ransom.
Governance will be the key focus for data security decision-making in 2024
The movement of enormous amounts of data in the cloud presents a new and challenging dynamic for teams trying to manage complex compliance requirements across different regulatory frameworks. Along with stricter data protection laws and growing concerns about privacy, organizations must adopt holistic compliance strategies in 2024 to align with these evolving requirements.
Gartner estimates that through 2025, 80% of organizations seeking to scale their digital business will fail because they do not take a modern approach to data governance. Without a doubt, governance will be at the forefront of business priorities next year as organizations face more risks of financial loss and reputational harm due to poor governance practices. Business leaders must bring compliance and legal to the table when it comes to the adherence to global regulations., as well as enforce a significant change in behavior security teams will have to make to achieve an effective approach to data governance.
The stakes will continue to rise in 2024 for organizations to prioritize data security. We, as an industry, must work with all stakeholders to establish technologies and strategies that ensure proper data management is practiced 24/7.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ron has more than 20 years of hands-on tech and leadership experience, with a focus on cybersecurity, cloud, big data, and machine learning. Following his military experience in Unit 8200 in the Israel Defense Forces, which is widely considered one of the world’s leading intelligence agencies, Ron developed Crosswise that he later sold to Oracle. He became a serial entrepreneur and a seed investor in several cybersecurity startups, including Axonius, Talon and Guard.io. Today, Ron is CTO at Sentra, a data lifecycle security company which he co-founded with other experienced cybersecurity leaders.
