2023 State of Security Report: Strive for Simplicity

A flurry of change saw organizations shift their approach to cybersecurity from castle-and-moat to protecting data wherever its people are, picking up new technologies and frameworks to combat emerging threats along the way.

But for all the benefits brought to the field, companies didn’t escape the downsides. Now, they’re striving to simplify security.

The 2023 State of Security report, conducted for Forcepoint by Cybersecurity Insiders, explores the impact of the past few years on cybersecurity and what leaders are looking toward as catalysts for improvement in 2023.

Converging Concerns for Best-of-Breed

A considerable amount of enterprise IT spending was pulled forward in 2021 and security was a big driver behind that. Organizations adopted a mix of new tools needed to support and secure a hybrid workforce, but implementation wasn’t exactly plug and play.

An overwhelming 87 percent of security professionals conceded that it’s difficult to get full visibility of potential security issues because their security applications don’t full integrate with one another.

Unsurprisingly, 84 percent found it tougher to manage policies across their technology stack in recent years.

What’s behind the frustration? A few things:

 

The rampant policy sprawl is exacerbated by record employee turnover. The turnover, which is also impacting broader security plans, represents a loss of institutional knowledge that adds to the challenge of managing so many policies.

 

It’s All Coming Together for a Platform Approach

In light of all the challenges companies have faced, almost half of all respondents believe consolidated platforms such as Forcepoint ONE will be the most effective approach to security in the coming years.

Platforms like Forcepoint ONE can make it easier to adopt elements of Zero Trust – something 76 percent of companies have done – due to the inclusion of tools like Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA). As a result, organizations have already gained a wide array of benefits from adopting Zero Trust.

 

The simplification of security controls is a common theme among many of the initiatives that security leaders are taking up in the wake of the past three years. Respondents see simplified security functionality as the greatest benefit of the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) framework.

 

With a consolidated platform in place, organizations are looking toward eliminating certain threats altogether in 2023 and beyond leveraging the latest technologies and security models. In doing so, they’re simplifying both the day-to-day management of security and defending against cyber-threat actors.

Read the full 2023 State of Security report here.