Organizations are feeling the impact of attacks and are taking tangible steps to lock in budget specifically to address security concerns with Cloud Security seeing the largest increase.
There are two certainties that exist within IT today: cyberattacks are going to continue and organizations are moving operations to the cloud. These foundational truths of how IT will operate moving forward align with data highlighted in the Evolution of Security Creates Opportunity report by investment firm Cowen.
According to the report:
- 66% of organizations plan on increasing IT security spend
- Percentage of IT budget devoted to security increased by just over 32% in 2019 when compared to 2018
- Cloud Security, Identity & Access Management, and Application Security are seen as top priorities for budget spend, growing in budget percentage from 2018 through 2019 and into estimated spend in 2020
- 38% of IT security budgets are estimated to be allocated to cloud-based solutions by 2020
These shifts are part proactive and part reactive. Organizations today realize the need to have security in place, so as they shift to the cloud, having cloud-based security solutions ready is prudent. But there’s also the reactive component – with so many attacks being put in cloud-based platforms, such as Office 365, security measures protecting cloud access need to be in place today.
One part of a layered security strategy missing from the Cowen report is Security Awareness Training. This training is designed to incorporate the user as part of the defense by educating them on both the need to be security-minded and how to leverage that mindedness in everyday interaction with email and the web. Organizations implementing continual Security Awareness Training are better prepared to stop attacks that take advantage of the human element – which is particularly difficult to secure when you have operations in the cloud and users anywhere and everywhere around the globe.
New-school Security Awareness Training is critical to enabling you and your IT staff to connect with users and help them make the right security decisions all of the time. This isn't a one and done deal, continuous training and simulated phishing are both needed to mobilize users as your last line of defense. Request your quote for KnowBe4's security awareness training and simulated phishing platform and find out how affordable this is!
