Top seven security and risk management trends for 2019: Gartner

Gartner has identified seven emerging security and risk management trends that will impact security, privacy and risk leaders in the longer term.

“External factors and security-specific threats are converging to influence the overall security and risk landscape, so leaders in the space must properly prepare to improve resilience and support business objectives,” said Peter Firstbrook, research vice president at Gartner.

The top seven security and risk management trends for 2019 and beyond are:

Trend No. 1: Risk Appetite Statements Are Becoming Linked to Business Outcomes

As IT strategies become more closely aligned with business goals, the ability for security and risk management (SRM) leaders to effectively present security matters to key business decision makers gains importance.

Trend No. 2: Security Operations Centers Are Being Implemented With a Focus on Threat Detection and Response

The shift in security investments from threat prevention to threat detection requires an investment in security operations centers (SOCs) as the complexity and frequency of security alerts grow. According to Gartner, by 2022, 50 percent of all SOCs will transform into modern SOCs with integrated incident response, threat intelligence and threat-hunting capabilities, up from less than 10 percent in 2015.

Trend No. 3: Data Security Governance Frameworks Will Prioritize Data Security Investments

Data security is a complex issue that cannot be solved without a strong understanding of the data itself, the context in which the data is created and used, and how it is subject to regulation. Rather than acquiring data protection products and trying to adapt them to suit the business need, leading organizations are starting to address data security through a data security governance framework (DSGF).

Trend No. 4: Passwordless Authentication Is Achieving Market Traction

Passwordless authentication, such as Touch ID on smartphones, is starting to achieve real market traction. The technology is being increasingly deployed in enterprise applications for consumers and employees, as there is ample supply and demand for it.

Trend No. 5: Security Product Vendors Are Increasingly Offering Premium Skills and Training Services

The number of unfilled cybersecurity roles is expected to grow from 1 million in 2018 to 1.5 million by the end of 2020, according to Gartner. While advancements in artificial intelligence and automation certainly reduce the need for humans to analyze standard security alerts, sensitive and complex alerts require the human eye.

Trend No. 6: Investments Being Made in Cloud Security Competencies as a Mainstream Computing Platform

The shift to cloud means stretching security teams thin, as talent may be unavailable and organizations are simply not prepared for it. Gartner estimates that the majority of cloud security failures will be the fault of the customers through 2023.

Trend No. 7: Increasing Presence of Gartner’s CARTA in Traditional Security Markets

Gartner’s continuous adaptive risk and trust assessment (CARTA) is a strategy for dealing with the ambiguity of digital business trust assessments. “Even though it’s a multiyear journey, the idea behind CARTA is a strategic approach to security that balances security friction with transaction risk. A key component to CARTA is to continuously assess risk and trust even after access is extended,” said Firstbrook.