As of July 31, 2021, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center saw a 62% increase in reported ransomware incidents compared with the same time frame in 2020. Intrusions in environments spanned various types of infrastructure, with 35% exploiting software vulnerabilities and 32% using supply chains and third parties to obtain unauthorized access, per Forrester data. 2021 continued the mainstream implementation of Zero Trust (as one in six enterprise organizations planned to adopt it), extended detection and response (XDR) emerged as a technology category, and security services took a hard pivot to managed detection and response (MDR). Continued adoption of cloud, the permanence of anywhere-work, and thriving software businesses make connectivity and code a requirement, and that paints a bull’s-eye on every business. Competently defending against cyberattacks and emerging threats is more difficult — and more important — than ever.

Defend The Business With The Right Security Program

Organizations ready to defend against cyberattacks and emerging threats will make competence, integrity, and empathy the guiding principles of their security programs — competence to continue executing flawlessly, integrity by protecting their firms’ data, and empathy when dealing with colleagues, partners, and customers. Our research guides security leaders through their journey of creating diverse, inclusive, and adaptable teams. These teams are ready to design, architect, operate, prevent, detect, and respond across any infrastructure, application, or location where their company operates. CISOs can use our existing research to:

  • Anticipate the next evolution in threat actor tools, tactics, and procedures.
  • Demystify and operationalize Zero Trust to facilitate cloud and anywhere-work.
  • Understand major technology and service shifts such as Zero Trust edge, XDR, and MDR.
  • Evaluate their current state and identify which vendors best solve their use cases.

Security Teams Must Constantly Adapt

Relentless attacks require CISOs and security programs to endure and constantly adapt by always improving the overall security posture of their firms, performing root cause analysis, and converting detection into protection and prevention. That’s why our planned research will offer deep dives on new approaches to detection, resilient architectures, and ways to use services to offset the deluge of alerts your teams face. Given the visibility and importance of cybersecurity to other stakeholders and the board of directors, this is the best time for CISOs to take a forward-looking approach in their security programs to solve some lingering problems, such as:

  • Threat hunting. Unleash the creativity in your experts by giving them time and space to hunt for threats. For too long, security has waited for intruders to make mistakes before we notice them. Allie Mellen and I will release a guide to threat hunting and a threat hunting charter to elevate experts and get an edge when it comes to finding evil and understanding your environment.
  • Detection and response. The security operations center (SOC) is not short on tools, but years of incremental progress finally brought the revolution that SOC teams needed. Allie Mellen will continue to define XDR and build on her first-in-market evaluative research to help bring clarity to a crowded vendor landscape where everyone sounds the same. Allie and Sandy Carielli will also team up to research how developers and the SOC can improve their visibility when monitoring custom-built applications.
  • Incident response. Jess Burn will release a Forrester Wave™ evaluation on cybersecurity incident response (IR) to assist security leaders in navigating a crowded but vital ecosystem of IR providers. This market evaluation is especially pertinent given recent activity from cyber insurers. Add on ransomware unpreparedness, geopolitical tensions, and intellectual property theft running rampant on a global basis, and this is a timely piece of research. Additional content will include examining how incident response and legal teams interlock with one another.
  • Zero Trust. We’ve released a new, modern definition of Zero Trust that better aligns with the problems security leaders face today. But that is just the beginning. Expect to see content on how to right-size Zero Trust from David Holmes, evaluations of vendor portfolios offering Zero Trust, and more research on how Zero Trust edge and Zero Trust network access align with where your organization is headed.
  • Talent retention and staffing. The cybersecurity staffing shortage — both real and self-inflicted — is not easing up any time soon. Jess Burn will explore the oft-mandated — but almost totally unexamined — cybersecurity certification ecosystem. We also have plans for multiple role profiles to offer clients our heavily curated, inclusive job descriptions for their use when seeking candidates to fill vacancies.
  • Secure communications. Encrypting communications between executives, partners, and stakeholders has become an area of focus for enterprise security leaders. Whether it’s during an incident, to escape big tech surveillance, or to protect sensitive intellectual property from nation-state espionage, Heidi Shey will release research on this area that continues to move up the list of CISO concerns.

Reach out to your Forrester account team for more information on how to access this content!