This is part of an ongoing 2021 predictions series. We’ve asked top cyber experts to contribute their insights and expertise to provide a look ahead at what the new year may bring to cybersecurity.
Consolidation of the cybersecurity market - which corners of the security industry will see the most consolidation?
The corners of the security market that will see the most consolidation are point SOAR (Security Orchestration And Response) and UEBA (User and Entity Behavior Analytics) being consumed or replaced by Cloud SIEM solutions. There will also be continued consolidation in the CASB and Secure Internet Gateway solutions for tighter restrictions around VPN and Cloud DLP for WFH users.
What emerging security technologies do you anticipate will become more popular in 2021?
Anything and everything related to ZeroTrust and WFH users that are connecting from insecure devices to cloud workloads. Keep an eye on Opswat and SentinalOne as emerging endpoint protection platforms that will help secure systems that are being used for both work and home activities.
How do you see the CSO role evolving in 2021?
The modern day CSO role has been tremendously influenced by the health and wellbeing of employees. We are purpose built to handle crises through prescriptive response and action. This will continue as we face reentry plans along with continued shutdowns or restrictions. The role also continues to have three measurable qualities:
Knowledge of the business – This will help the CSO align a security and compliance strategy to business goals without being a blocker.
Technical Breadth – Understanding current and emerging technologies that can provide value and innovation, but also a new surface layer of attack. We need to stay current on what security solutions are hitting the market as well that can help close the gap to new threats.
Evangelism – It is critical for a CSO to gain the confidence of their organization throughout the ranks and from a board level in order to sell and get buy in for their program. The CSO and their team must be approachable, agile and in tune to the needs of the people to encourage, motivate and learn from them through mistakes, self-reporting with full transparency.
Do you anticipate a sharp increase in cybersecurity talent (college enrollment, career changes, etc.) as the election and COVID-19 have highlighted the strong need? Why or why not?
Yes, I believe cyber security is a growing industry within IT that is attracting tens of thousands of students globally from a studies and career track perspective. I think COVID has strengthened the need for stronger cyber security due to everyone working remotely and digitally and that in turn of course creates more job demands. A perfect opportunity for college grads and interns to capitalize on.
How do you see ITOps and SecOps teams working together in 2021?
IT operations and security teams are quickly converging responsibilities around writing deploying and maintaining secure applications. Another related trend is the consolidation of tools and monitoring infrastructure now being shared across teams largely driven by the transformation to cloud and SaaS technologies giving both teams the powerful capability to drive cross functional efficiencies and cost savings.
With companies using contact tracing and tracking technologies, how do you see them balancing this with data privacy?
Digital privacy for employees and customers is increasingly becoming more important every year and has only been accelerated by COVID-19. My prediction is that most large enterprise organizations will make the investment in hiring a dedicated privacy officer (if they haven’t already) in the next 12-24 months to define, monitor and enforce privacy protections for both their employee and customer bases.
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