COMMERCE  – Nuspire, a managed security services provider, announced findings from its annual research study, revealing CISO challenges, priorities and key trends as well as the drivers behind purchasing decisions.

“The shift to remote work, a significant increase in threat volume and the ongoing cybersecurity talent shortage are some of the biggest challenges facing CISOs today – challenges they’re expected to address with limited resources,” said Michelle Bank, Nuspire’s Chief Product and Marketing Officer. “CISOs are prioritizing their spending based on where they get the most value, and our latest research study shows that CISOs are putting their limited dollars toward staying up to date and optimizing existing technology.”

Key findings from the study include:

  • CISOs and IT security decision makers are most concerned about overall security program improvements; monitoring, detecting and responding to threats 24/7; and vulnerability/posture assessments.

  • The top three outsourced services include overall security program improvements; monitoring, detecting and responding to threats 24/7; and technology optimization and integrations to ensure the best use of existing technology.

  • Nearly one-quarter of CISOs say they spend the most time on business, IT and security program strategy.

  • Two-thirds believe their organization is vulnerable to attack, especially when it comes to cloud applications, end users and cloud infrastructure.

  • CISOs are highly concerned about end-users and see the need for more education to prevent ransomware and phishing attacks – especially in an era of remote work; however, their likelihood to outsource a solution is low.

Nuspire’s research methodology involved anonymously surveying over 200 U.S.-based CISO and IT decision makers from large to mid-size enterprise organizations across a variety of industries, including retail, manufacturing, information technology and more.

To learn more about these findings, join its webinar on August 31 to discuss CISOs’ key pain points, their confidence level around their ability to prevent threats and top buying trends.