Cyber security investment can sometimes feel like shoveling money into a black hole.
Gartner expects global IT spending to increase by 8% during 2024 – but market analysts predict that spending on cyber and information security will rise even more quickly.
How, then, do you maximize returns on investment from cyber spending? One problem is that quick fixes and temporary patches applied to the sprawling IT estates of many organizations are creating considerable technical debt and cyber risk. Sweating assets in this manner limits priority investment and gets in the way of leaders' efforts to run their businesses more efficiently.
The longer technical debt is allowed to continue, the greater the risk and financial pressure on the organization. Outdated software puts businesses at greater risk of a breach, potentially bringing on even greater (and unquantifiable) expenditures.
The good news for leaders determined to rise to the challenge in 2024 is that killing two birds with one stone is possible. The right approach to investment will not only improve the resilience and security of the organization but will also help it to drive down costs.
Six tips for improving security while bearing down on cost.
Here's how cyber leaders can maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of their security investments in 2024:
1. Start by getting to grips with your blind spots.
Too few organizations have a complete view of their IT infrastructure, including their cyber security solutions. They may not fully understand whether the tooling and licenses they invest in every year are all required. Underutilized software licenses carry costs that inhibit security investment elsewhere, possibly bringing overall business risk posture down.
2. Next, calculate unseen costs.
Once organizations have a greater understanding and visibility of their infrastructure, they can begin to assess how effectively they use all software. Above all, they can identify the software assets consuming resources that could be better deployed elsewhere.
3. Understand what you really need to protect.
Organizations that have indiscriminately thrown money at cyber security often discover they are spending money in the wrong areas. Key assets aren't properly protected, while investment in other parts of the environment is going to waste or duplicating existing protections.
It's vital to make regular reviews of your organization's assets and security posture to guard against this risk. By doing so, leaders can identify underutilized and unmanaged licenses immediately – and assess the effectiveness of their protection of those assets.
4. Create a single source of the truth.
Many of the problems organizations face stem from the lack of a centralized view of their environments. Instead, they try to stitch together multiple reports, with pieces of the jigsaw inevitably falling into the cracks. It's not possible to keep such workarounds current.
Having complete visibility across environments is, therefore, crucial. It provides leaders with a reliable and accurate baseline from which they can develop plans for eliminating technical debt and saving money. This will simultaneously increase efficiency and reduce risk.
5. Highlight shadow IT.
IT departments are fighting a constant battle to provide services for their users. When shadow IT services appear in organizations, it can be very difficult to spot them, but they can soon take on a life of their own and become critical to business operations. Without the appropriate controls, such as patching, backups, antivirus, security monitoring, and system hardening, they can pose a significant risk, and unmanaged costs can escalate quickly.
6. Evaluate the effectiveness of spending.
Ultimately, every investment decision leaders make should drive greater protection for the organization. However, when research suggests that 94% of IT decision-makers discover unidentified endpoints and software on a weekly or even daily basis, this becomes very difficult to achieve. Unless leaders develop cyber strategy in this context, it will fall short.
Identify what you need to protect before it's too late.
To maximize investments and secure assets, cyber leaders must build a real-time picture of their organization's hardware and software, making it much easier to find cost-saving opportunities. Some assets may not be in use at all or even authorized.
NCC Group's Asset Discovery and SBOM Inventory solution, optimized with Tanium's endpoint management, makes it possible to secure complete visibility and accountability of all devices connected to the IT environment while identifying cost efficiencies at the same time.
UK Lead for Technical Assurance Services, NCC Group
Duncan has worked in the cyber security industry for over 20 years and has extensive experience designing, building, implementing, and running services to protect organisations across Financial Services, Government, Critical National Infrastructure, and Commercial sectors.
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