Gartner has identified three key areas for chief information security officers (CISOs) to focus on to augment their cybersecurity approach and generate more immediate value. The traditional "zero tolerance for failure" mindset in the industry is proving unsustainable, as successful cyberattacks continue to increase in volume and impact despite significant investments in preventative measures.
To become "augmented cybersecurity" organisations, Gartner recommends that CISOs prioritize three areas: building cyber fault tolerance in the business, streamlining to a minimum effective cyber toolset, and building a resilient cyber workforce.
“Each new cybersecurity disruption exposes the fact that CISOs manage more through adrenaline than intention, which is unsustainable,” said Dennis Xu, VP analyst at Gartner. “CISOs need to be resilient through intention, rather than adrenaline if they want to thrive.”
Firstly, CISOs should work to build cyber fault tolerance into the business, particularly in areas where preventative measures are underperforming, such as generative AI (GenAI) and the use of third-party vendors.
For GenAI, CISOs need to complement prevention-oriented guidance with effective response and recovery playbooks, as it is impossible to prevent all attacks. Similarly, for third-party cyber risk management, the focus should shift from asking more due diligence questions to ensuring the business has documented and tested third-party-specific business continuity plans.
Secondly, CISOs must break the cycle of "gear acquisition syndrome" by embracing an ethos of adopting the fewest number of tools required to observe, defend, and respond to exploitations of the organisation's exposures. This involves identifying redundancies and gaps, building technology proofs of concept around deployment risks, and leveraging GenAI to augment existing tools.
Lastly, CISOs must treat workforce resilience as a true competency, making it easy for employees to access support, share failure and learning stories, and redesign work to reduce burnout. By doing so, they can foster an environment that encourages innovation, experimentation, and engagement from their teams.
The path to becoming an augmented cybersecurity organisation requires a fundamental shift in mindset and approach, but Gartner believes these three areas provide a clear roadmap for CISOs to generate immediate value and better position their organisations to thrive in the face of evolving cybersecurity threats.
Christopher Mixter, VP analyst at Gartner says in an era where successful cyberattacks are increasing in volume and impact despite preventative cyber investments, organisations must augment their approach to elevate response and recovery to equal status with prevention.
