Full Report
Hear from security leaders about their plans, strategies, and priorities for the new year.
Analysis Summary
# Industry News: CISOs Prioritize People, Data, and Existing Investments for 2023 Security Strategy
## Summary
Veteran CISOs shared their top security resolutions for 2023, emphasizing a strategic shift toward optimizing existing resources, strengthening internal collaboration, and focusing technical investments on backend cloud protection and data analysis, rather than solely procuring new technology. This reflects a broader market trend where economic scrutiny forces security leadership to prove business value and maximize ROI from current spending.
## Key Details
- Date: Pre-2023 outlook (Contextually late 2022)
- Companies Involved: Rocket Companies, Takeda, DocuSign, United Airlines (via CISO commentary)
- Category: Market Analysis & Strategic Guidance (CISOs Resolutions/Trends)
## The Story
Security leaders are redefining their investment priorities for the coming year, moving away from relying on fear-based budgeting environments. Key themes emerging from discussions with prominent CISOs include: fostering deep internal relationships across teams to treat security as a "team sport"; doubling down on developing and empowering existing technical talent rather than expanding headcount amidst budget constraints; hardening backend cloud security following Zero Trust principles; dedicating resources to innovation while rigorously justifying the business value of security actions; and making significant investments in data analytics capabilities to derive actionable insights from the massive amounts of security data being generated. A recurring sentiment is the need to "finish what you started" by ensuring maximum utilization (80%+) of already purchased security tools before considering new acquisitions.
## Business Impact
### For the Companies Involved
- **Internal Efficiency:** By focusing on internal relationships and upskilling existing employees, companies aim to increase productivity and demonstrate greater efficiency under tighter financial controls.
- **Risk Mitigation:** A renewed focus on backend cloud protection and data-centric security promises a more hardened defense against lateral movement and data exfiltration.
### For Competitors
- Competitors who continue to prioritize broad tool sprawl over optimizing existing platforms or focusing on talent development may struggle to show the same level of ROI and organizational alignment, potentially lagging in efficiency despite higher spending.
### For Customers
- Customers are likely to benefit from more mature, data-driven security postures, underpinned by consolidated toolsets and better-aligned security teams, leading to more stable and effective protection.
### For the Market
- The market is signaling a slowdown in "fear-driven" procurement refresh cycles. Buyers will demand clear evidence of ROI and business value, pressuring vendors whose products are not delivering concrete, measurable outcomes from existing deployments.
## Technical Implications
The central technical investment recommended is in the **data plane**. CISOs plan to invest heavily in robust data analytics engines capable of synthesizing high-volume alerts into actionable intelligence to establish baselines of "normalcy." This suggests a continued maturation of SIEM/XDR platforms, prioritizing functionality that extracts meaning from existing telemetry over deploying disparate, siloed point solutions. Zero Trust implementation should continue to target backend/data-level controls.
## Strategic Analysis
- **Market Positioning:** Security leadership is moving toward a CISO role focused on business enablement and strategic risk reduction, rather than just technology rollout. This elevates the function's standing within the C-suite.
- **Competitive Advantage:** Companies that successfully upskill talent and consolidate tooling gain a significant advantage in maximizing output with stable or reduced budgets compared to peers who continue to chase the newest vendor feature.
- **Challenges:** The primary challenge remains demonstrating quantifiable business value ("Fear factor is not enough any longer") and achieving consensus across disparate teams (Resolution #1) and driving adoption among existing toolsets (Resolution #6).
## Industry Reactions
- **Analyst Opinions:** This direction aligns with analyst observations regarding budget constraints in 2023, where "optimization" has replaced "acceleration" as the primary IT purchasing theme.
- **Expert Commentary:** Experts applaud the emphasis on internal skills development and cross-functional alignment, viewing these as foundational elements that underpin successful technology adoption.
- **Market Response:** Initial market response suggests a potential slowdown in new subscription bookings for non-differentiating point solutions, while platforms offering strong data aggregation and ROI metrics may see sustained interest.
## Future Outlook
- We expect security vendor messaging to increasingly pivot toward capabilities that explicitly support data consolidation, analytics, and efficiency gains from existing infrastructure. Vendor partnerships, particularly with scrappy startups vetted via "innovation showcases," will likely increase as a cost-effective R&D mechanism. The ability of CISOs to articulate security performance in purely business terms will become a standard expectation.
## For Security Professionals
Security practitioners must focus on mastering the tools already deployed, actively participating in cross-functional working groups, and developing strong communication skills to articulate the business impact of their work. Technical specialization should favor data engineering and analysis skills relevant to cloud environments, rather than merely operating new point solutions.