CISOs fear getting the blame for mega data breaches

• Report finds AI-driven threats are evolving quicker than firms can keep up with
• Organizations use countless dashboards and security tools, adding to confusion
• Simplification starts with one “trusted” data source

Amid the tide of rising cyber threats, two in three (65%) security leaders fear they’ll be blamed in the event of a major breach, making the role less desirable and potentially even leaving many companies struggling to fill roles.

New research from Panaseer found the average cyber incident cost per impacted enterprise is $14 million annually, which is the equivalent of 73% of their security budget – a budget that clearly failed them in the first place, to have become victims of attacks.

With increasingly complex systems, Panaseer found that three in four attacks exploited multiple control failures, with nearly two-thirds reporting that attackers bypassed controls they believed should have prevented breaches.

The CISO role is no longer as appealing

The landscape is being further amplified by a rise in AI-driven threats – more than three-quarters (77%) worry that these are evolving faster than teams can respond.

As it currently stands, organizations use an average of 61 security tools and 58 dashboards, performing or responding to 28 audits annually that take on average eight days to prepare.

“The complexity of the IT landscape, sprawl of cyber tools and fast-evolving threat environment, compounded by growing regulator demands, make it very difficult to achieve even basic hygiene,” CEO Jonthan Gill noted.

Although 77% agree that traditional tools aren’t fit for today’s threat landscape, it seems that more isn’t better either – many report costly delays in audits or fail to prove control effectiveness to leadership.

“For CISOs, it is a case of water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink,” Gill added. Panaseer calls for widespread simplification, starting with a “single, trusted source of ground truth data” and dashboards that speak the languages of stakeholders and auditors.

“Without this, security teams cannot track controls and progress; businesses cannot understand risk; and enterprises will continue losing millions to preventable breaches.”

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