Gartner: Cybersecurity predictions for 2022-2023

Cybersecurity is a key element of digital transformation. The ability to have business continuity when cyber incidents occur — or cyber resiliency — play a critical role, especially when data and connected systems are such important components of digital transformation.

According to a Gartner survey from late 2021, 88% of Boards of Directors view cybersecurity as a business risk, as opposed to a technology risk. At the same time, only 12% have dedicated board-level cybersecurity committees.

So what does the future of cybersecurity look like right now?

“We can’t fall into old habits and try to treat everything the same as we did in the past,” explained Richard Addiscott, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner, in the opening keynote of the Gartner Security & Risk Summit in mid-June. 

“Most security and risk leaders now recognize that major disruption is only one crisis away. We can’t control it, but we can evolve our thinking, our philosophy, our program and our architecture.”

Here are eight cybersecurity predictions that experts from Gartner recommend leaders build into their security strategies:

1. Consumer privacy rights (required by government regulations) will cover 5 billion citizens and more than 70% of global GDP through 2023.
2. By 2025, 80% of enterprises will adopt a strategy to unify web, cloud services, and private application access from a single vendor’s integrated security service edge (SSE) platform.
3. 60% of organizations will embrace ‘Zero Trust’ as a security starting point by 2025 — and more than half will fail to realize the benefits.
4. By 2025, 60% of organizations will use cybersecurity risk as a primary determinant in conducting third-party transactions and business engagements.
5. In 2021, less than 1% of nation states have legislation regulating ransomware payments, fines, and negotiations. Through 2025, 30% of nation states will pass legislation.
6. By 2025, threat actors will have weaponized operational technology environments successfully to cause human casualties.
7. By 2025, 70% of CEOs will mandate a culture of organized resilience to survive coinciding threats from cybercrime, severe weather, civil unrest, and political instabilities.
8. By 2026, 50% of C-level executives will have performance requirements related to risk built into their employment contracts.

Learn more about these predictions from Gartner, and about additional priorities for security and privacy leaders from their ebook 2022 Leadership Vision for Security & Risk Management Leaders.