Organizations are approaching cybersecurity with an open checkbook. Yet for all the money spent on securing networks, cyber attack damage has increased as much as 1500% in the last two years.
The casualties read like a corporate Who’s Who: Facebook saw over $5obn wiped off their market capitalization in two days. Equifax is still fighting 240 class actions, and Home Depot is continuing to pay out 3 years later. It will only get worse.
By 2021 businesses will lose $6 for every $1 they spend on cybersecurity, and they will be spending trillions.
There are now signs the well is drying up. Recent surveys suggest security budgets need to grow by 50%, but the average increase will be nearer 10%.
Enter a new, possibly more dangerous cyber player, your CFO: armed with the need to increase security at lower cost they could be opening your business up to serious attacks.
The good news is that there are some approaches that are starting to gain traction:
Focus on ‘Just enough’.
Identify and secure the most critical elements for network security and maximize investment against these. That way budgets will not be spread too thinly across more and more network demands.
Look to prediction.
Don’t filter and manage every part of the traffic, it makes the process complicated and overwhelming. Look to security solutions that use prediction to better-manage network traffic and provide a dynamic security perimeter.
Involve the boardroom.
PWC says over 40% of enterprises are involving the board in the security strategy and budget setting. It creates a new lens for security decision-making: business outcomes, competitive advantage, customer experience and corporate reputation.
Think utility.
More security, higher utility at lower cost is the new mantra. It’s unearthing some interesting new solutions.
Take full network packet capture: an aging solution that has reinvented itself. Think 1Mbps to 100Gbps capture rates, real-time filtering, and, the ability to retain weeks, months and even years of network traffic – for as little as 20% of the cost of traditional systems.
Then think application performance and network performance monitoring as well as cybersecurity.
These are just some of the approaches outlined in 5 Ways to Sweat Network Security Budgets, created to help network and IT teams who recognize that a CFO dictating more return from a lower security budget can create as many challenges as a cybercriminal or a malicious insider.
What are the approaches you will be taking this year to make the most of your network security budget?
