1. GenAI will collapse the cybersecurity skills gap

In its 2024 technology predictions, Gartner sees GenAI finally closing the skills gap that has plagued the cybersecurity industry for so long. By 2028, the analysts predict that GenAI will remove the need for specialised education from around half of entry-level cybersecurity positions.

2. European cybersecurity spend to increase over 12% in 2024

Constant cyberthreats and the need to be compliant with new national and international regulations like NIS2 and DORA will cause European security spend to grow by 12.3 per cent in 2024. According to IDC, the growing outlay is also being caused by organisations scrambling to secure their hybrid work environments.

3.  GenAI not the panacea for more autonomous security

GenAI promises much but isn’t yet able to deliver more autonomous security operations centres. Forrester analysts explain that the problem lies in GenAI’s inability to access and process data across a range of fragmented security tools. That data needs to be consolidated before GenAI can become genuinely useful to SOCs.

4. Almost 2/3 of organisations have implemented Zero Trust

Gartner reports that 63 per cent of organisations worldwide have fully or partially implemented Zero Trust strategies. The analyst house adds that, for 78 per cent of organisations, the investment represented less than a quarter of their overall security budgets.

5.  Organisations need to do more to address cybersecurity agent burnout

Forrester researchers have written on the cause and effect of burnout in the cybersecurity industry. They say that security teams are exhausted from working to unrealistic expectations and with limited resources. In addition to damaging agent health and wellbeing, this also weakens organisations’ security postures.

6. Government and public sector leading targets for cybercriminals

Government and public-sector organisations are both in the top four targeted by criminals, according to a report from KnowBe4. The information those organisations hold on individuals is valuable in committing identity theft or other attacks such as spear phishing.

7.  1/4 of top Asian companies to deploy GenAI for security in 2024

IDC has predicted that 25 per cent of the top 2,000 Asia companies will have put GenAI to use in their security operation centres by the end of 2024. The move is aimed to augment, not replace, the ability of human agents to detect and respond to threats promptly.

8. Avast fined $16.5 million for ‘unfairly collected’ customer data

Cybersecurity firm Avast has been fined $16.5 million by the US Federal Trade Commission because it “unfairly collected consumers’ browsing information through the company’s browser extensions and antivirus software, stored it indefinitely, and sold it without adequate notice and without consumer consent.” Avast will be prohibited from selling browsing data and have to notify consumers whose data was sold, among other requirements.

9. AI threat detection and ‘adaptive security’ top of the agenda for government CIOs

Government organisations will invest heavily in multiagent AI to aid threat detection and incident response, with usage increasing from 5 per cent to 70 per cent of AI implementations by 2028. According to Gartner, an adaptive security model is one that constantly adapts and merges tools and techniques to address new and emerging threats.

10. MENA security and risk management spending will hit $3.4 billion in 2024

Research firm Gartner predicts a 12.1 per cent increase in security and risk management spending in the Middle East and North Africa in 2024, reaching $3.3 billion in total. The threat of GenAI attack tools is a driver of the increase. Data privacy is the area which will see the greatest growth, increasing 24 per cent year-on-year.