Cybersecurity Trends: What’s in Store for 2024?
The cybersecurity market moves fast—and your cybersecurity marketing strategies and tactics must move with it. For vendors, staying abreast of the latest trends and understanding the impact on their customers, clients, and prospects informs how to best message and market both products and services.
Here are some of the top cybersecurity trends on the horizon.
Trend #1: AI is making big headlines.
Given the pace of change, most organizations are struggling with how to deploy AI securely. This is in both utilization of their own models and use by employees of open models like ChatGPT. Gartner is urging CISOs to adhere to new forms of trust, risk, and security management. From data poisoning to privacy issues, all organizations will have their eyes on how to deploy AI securely. Cybercriminals also have the capabilities now to deploy AI powered bots and more, making it easier to launch sophisticated attacks. Kudos to the tech vendors who are rapidly introducing product features to enable secure AI use.
Trend #2: What’s on the horizon for SMBs vs. enterprise?
It’s good news for product and service providers for SMB. With over 80% of SMB spend being partner-delivered (Canalsys), the reliance on managed services to move up the cybersecurity maturity curve is great news for increasingly sophisticated services partners. According to a recent report from Analysys Mason, SMB spend on cybersecurity will rise to $109 billion by 2026. Given that the impact from cybersecurity breaches for SMBs can be even more devasting than for enterprise, the increased investment is critical.
For enterprises, a hot topic surrounds Identity and Access Management (IAM). According to a recent RSA study, “Identity is as much the defender’s shield as it is the attacker’s target. In fact, it is the most consequential part of the attack surface.” Resilience is also top of mind, understanding that even the most advanced organizations cannot be 100% protected. Risk quantification is another area of note, although Gartner predicts that about half of cybersecurity leaders will have unsuccessfully tried to use cyber risk quantification to drive enterprise decision making by 2025. Emerging platforms may up the success of this key area.
Across the board, the talent and skills gap will continue to cause angst, especially given the rate of change. Many of the associations and alliances are working on addressing this issue, including the work by Cyversity to create a net new talent pool.
Trend #3: Cybersecurity and the BOD
Gartner has predicted that by 2026, 70 percent of boards will include at least one member with expertise in the field. Progress is being made in driving toward better awareness at the board level. According to a recent NACD study of corporate board members, 80% felt they had greater understanding of risk as compared to the prior 2 years. Many vendors are placing a greater emphasis on educating and communicating with the BOD audience to advance this critical aspect of addressing risk.
Trend #4: Cyber insurance and evolving mandates
Although this year showed stabilization including smaller rate increases and, in some cases, flat renewals, the fact remains that cyber insurance is an area of focus. We are seeing many vendors focusing on how they can help customers/clients adhere to mandates like MFA, incident response, assessments, training, and more. It is estimated that the global cyber insurance market size for claims will grow at an average of 25% per year from 2021 to 2026. (Statista)
Trend #5: Funding and M&A in cybersecurity
For venture funding, 2023 will end a down year for cyber companies struggling to grow, with less capital and fewer deals according to CBInsights. Some say it’s a perceived oversaturation and overlapping of tools coupled with the economic uncertainty. Regardless, it’s likely standing in the way of some truly unique solutions. Following a tumultuous year of layoffs at big cyber firms, the spending outlook for cybersecurity solutions remains strong, so it remains to be seen if the tide turns (and how fast) in 2024.
For M&A, slower deal volumes are hopefully a thing of the past. In the absence of VC funding, founders may take this path to exit, unable to get the momentum they need. Consolidation has already been happening and given the need to integrate solution silos, it’s not a bad thing for the end customer (provided the transition is smooth!)
How does your solution stack up against these trends?
There are many trends not covered here that are on the ‘trend’ list year after year. Maybe 2024 will bring resolution of some of these. The cybersecurity market continues to become more crowded, which can make it challenging to break through the noise for cybersecurity products and services alike. Our clients rely on us to be cybersecurity marketing experts—for strategy, content, targeting, digital programming, and more. Read our most popular cybersecurity blog, Cyber Security Marketing Ideas & Tips: Six Things to Do Differently for Sales Enablement for some ideas to help give your cybersecurity marketing plan a leg up.
If you’re considering bringing on additional help with your cybersecurity marketing plans and programs, we recommend reviewing our eBook, Finding the Right Cybersecurity Marketing Partner, or you can contact us directly for an introductory chat.