This post is part of G2's 2023 digital trends series. Read more about G2’s perspective on digital transformation trends in an introduction from Emily Malis Greathouse, director, market research, and additional coverage on trends identified by G2’s analysts. 

Security becomes more proactive than reactive

Cybersecurity is a team sport

In the late Middle Ages, castle lords built multiple layers of defenses to protect their castles from the enemy. These numerous layers involved several simple yet effective defenses, including draw bridges, moats, and portcullises. Each had its distinct purpose, and each defense mechanism complemented the other. 

Cybersecurity professionals, the modern equivalent of castle lords, have a similar approach to securing their virtual castle that hosts something a little more valuable and easily lootable if granted access—data. If data is plundered, trust is destroyed, and the kingdom falls shortly after.

For system security to work, security professionals must implement several defense mechanisms. This can include breach and attack simulation (BAS) software, security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) software, cloud data security software, or incident response software.

Source: System Security Software categories at G2

Something security professionals may envy about their ancient counterparts is how they had to deal with only a certain number of threats or attack vectors. Factually enough, in 2022, the average weekly attacks per organization have risen to 1,130 worldwide, which is 28% more than what it was in 2021.

Clearly, cybersecurity professionals have to play a different game moving forward, and a big part of the strategy will be educating individuals on how to detect malicious actors.

G2 data shows that shadow IT is prevalent in workplaces

Security awareness training software has been a part of most organizations’ cybersecurity arsenal long enough. They train and assess employees to evaluate their security readiness. Companies can save a lot of time and resources by training employees to spot threats and alert the same to security teams.

Shadow IT, which refers to IT systems or software that are used without the explicit approval of the IT department, is more prevalent and damaging than most companies imagine. 56% of respondents in the 2022 G2 Software Buyer Behavior Report said they had used software tools that had not been approved or vetted for security by their IT or infosec team. 

Source: 2022 G2 Software Buyer Behavior Report

However, businesses can tackle this with effective security awareness training. Going forward, we at G2 speculate security awareness training tools to gain prominence to prevent security incidents. Also, proactive security strategies are cheaper than reactive ones. Albeit, the importance of reactive security products will remain high.

Similarly, companies will adopt data clean room software for secure sensitive data collaboration. These tools make it possible to join sensitive datasets from different parties for analysis and prevent data leakage.

Another possible trend we see is the redefinition of the extended detection and response (XDR) platform products. The products are evolving into extended detection, defense, and response (XDDR) platforms, which is the natural progression for these tools as professionals aspire to detect, defend, and respond simultaneously to threats.

Proactive security for all seasons and reasons

By treating cybersecurity and data privacy as an afterthought, organizations and even product development teams, for that matter, are contributing to making their ecosystems the most fertile breeding ground for vulnerabilities. Security should be built into systems and processes. It should be made as natural as not forgetting to lock one’s house while leaving.

Software development teams will soon find it easier to think about security first when creating products. A new species of security software that aims to secure the software supply chain is on the rise, and G2 will soon be creating a category to represent that space.

Edited by Shanti S Nair