October is here, and that means it’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month! This initiative started back in 2004, thanks to the U.S. President and Congress, to help us all protect our personal data online amid rising cyberthreats.

As we enter the 21st Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is continuing last year’s theme: “Secure Our World.” This program aims to foster positive behavioral changes among users nationwide.

So what does this mean for tech marketers? If you stay up to date with cybersecurity trends, you can better understand what’s keeping your customers up at night and help them with their security challenges. Dive into a handful of security takeaways from our 2024 research studies to help you secure your marketing plan to reach security decision-makers this Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

Key takeaways:

State of the CIO

  • 38% of CIOs identified security improvements as the primary reason for increasing their budgets this year.
  • Looking ahead, 30% of CIOs expect to dedicate more time to security management over the next couple of years.
  • 70% of CIOs anticipate an increase in their involvement with cybersecurity initiatives within the next year.
  • CIOs say that cybersecurity is the leading tech area for new hires this year.

CIO Tech Poll: Tech Priorities

  • 68% of CIOs are planning to boost their spending on cybersecurity tools this year.
  • Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)/Security Service Edge (SSE) ranks among the top three technologies being actively explored by CIOs this year.
  • 64% of CIOs identify cybersecurity protection as the primary area for improvement within their IT organizations this year, rising to 70% among enterprise-level respondents.
  • The top 5 cybersecurity technologies being actively researched by CIOs include: behavior monitoring and analysis, Zero Trust architecture, container security, cloud data protection, and DevSecOps tools.

Cloud Computing

  • The primary driver for cloud investments this year, is the enhancement of security and governance.
  • Cloud buyers say that their organizations are actively investing in cloud-related roles, particularly hiring security engineers and architects to bolster their teams.
  • Close to half of ITDMs plan to adopt cloud-based security over the next 12 months, and one-quarter rank it as a top cloud growth area.

Security Priorities (coming soon)

  • Top security priorities for ITDMs in the coming year – strengthen protection of confidential and sensitive data, upgrade IT and data security to boost corporate resiliency, secure cloud data and systems, enhance security awareness through end-use training, simplify IT security infrastructure. To achieve these priorities, organizations are researching AI-enabled technologies, SOAR solutions, and deception technology.
  • 59% of security decision-makers say that their organization is more likely to consider a security solution that uses AI – up from 52% in 2023.
  • 67% of organizations are aware of what caused data security incidents they have experienced over the past 12 months.

Foundry’s 2024 Security Priorities study, which explores more in-depth goals, technology uses, and challenges among security leaders, will be released later this month. Be sure to subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter, The Intersection, to get the results right away.