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Partner at Costanoa Ventures │ AI-enabled SaaS / Security

What are the big narratives in cybersecurity right now? I'm crowdsourcing a list of "things we all hear" for a deeper data-driven examination of myth versus reality. A starter list: 1. There is increased pressure from CISO's to consolidate vendors and serious "tool fatigue" 2. CISO's are being asked to do more with less, budgets are facing real pressure and deal cycles are elongating...but the pressure from CISO's from board level to keep organization secure is higher than ever 3. Cybersecurity M&A is super hot and only going to get hotter 4. Everyone is tired of talking about AI in security, but simultaneously it seems like the only thing people are talking about is AI (some serious "no one goes to that restaurant anymore, it's too crowded" vibes) 5. Cloud security remains a top priority and thorny, unsolved problem for vast majority of enterprises, despite it being a consensus "top 3" priority for at least the past 3 years 6. Data security is getting renewed attention and emerging as a consensus top 3 priority 7. The cybersecurity skills gap remains a pressing issue with no relief in sight 8. Spear phishing attacks are rising in priority with attackers leveraging generative AI to launch attacks at a new level of sophistication and scale 9. Cyber warfare and state-sponsored cyber attacks are increasing in frequency and will intensify as we get closer to election season 10. GDPR was just the beginning: state and federal governments are implementing more stringent regulations in all aspects of security and compliance--UK Product Security and Telecommunications Act, PCI 4.0, new reporting rules from SEC / FTC on incident reporting, AI regulations being discussed in EU, California, and US Government....regulatory overhead will further strain security orgs that are already stretched thin. What else is top of mind for you? #cybersecurity #startups #infosec #datasecurity #CISO

The continued challenge of painting an overarching data driven approach to the picture of security controls across a given ecosystem and their effectiveness. Today there are silos of data within the security department, comprising of technical and non-technical elements generally stitched together via spreadsheets and powerpoints. Ranging from the normal technical elements (incidents/alerts/threats) through to the non-technical elements (Audit findings, remediation activities and project initiatives). This is made worse by the fact a) every organisation is different b) every leader wants to (or thinks that) their way is the best way to do it :)

Jed Leidheiser

Partner at March Capital | Enterprise VC

1mo

A few other narratives I frequently hear: - Ransomware is the biggest issue for corporations - Third-parties are the weakest link - Identity is the new perimeter - SIEM is dead, SOAR is dead

Adam Ely

Head of Digital Products

1mo

The question that's always interesting about #1 and #3 is: are these topics really driven from the field or from the vendors? We go through best of breed vs. suite/platformization cycles and while I think some of it is real pain, some of it is driven from vendors that need growth and it's a good narrative as they buy up companies.

Khash Kiani

Security Executive | Cloud | AI

1mo

1. AI security: distinguishing FUD from genuine risks 2. Cloud security: transitioning from tools that provide contextless recommendations to runtime tools that generate actionable alerts. 3. Cloud security: everyone realizing that every cloud problem is an IAM problem. Identity Attack Surface Management is everything!

Deepak Jeevankumar

Investor in BastionZero, Cequence, Dassana, Descope, Distyl.AI, Endor, Halcyon, JASK, Lightspin, Minio, OpenObserve, RedLock, Remediant, RiskRecon, Tetrate, Yugabyte.

1mo

CISOs need to do 2x more with 50% of the previous investment. Ie be 4 times efficient per dollar. Are CISOs up to that task?

Rajaram (Raj) Srinivasan

Accelerating Gen AI adoption ⭐

1mo

This is a great list. Another honorable mention would be fatigue from identity security. Most breaches that have happened in the recent past around identity have been around missing or ineffective implementations of most basic controls - MFA, SSO, and effective provisioning / de-provisioning of user identities

Kamal Shah

Co-founder and CEO, Prophet Security | AI for Security Operations

1mo

Thank you for sharing. Very insightful as always. 2 and 7 seem to contradict with 4. If you can't use AI to streamline security, then how do you solve for 4 and 7?

Andy J.

Cyber & IT Mgmt. | Transformation | Projects | Enterprise Architect | ACA, IT Audit & GRC

1mo

CISO are charged by the Exec with value for money. Just like everyone else at that level. Public cloud API are rich in data and functionality but hard to interrogate effectively, and private cloud / on prem won’t disappear. So it’s all about access to relevant / timely operational data and its synthesis.

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Grayson Berman

COO @ NextRay | ISSO/SOC Analyst | Privacy Focused NDR | Network Detection & Response

1mo

Everyone saying that on prem is going away, all going cloud.

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Andy C.

Director Data Analytics

1mo

Real ones are the same they have been. Some will twist and some will outrightly day anything with AI in it. Test this.

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