In this edition of Security’s Year in Review from Security magazine, we showcase the top stories and new developments from across the security industry throughout 2023. 

January

2023: The year for contextual cyber threat intelligence

In the January Cyber Tactics column, contributing writer John McClurg discussed how to build a cyber defense strategy built on intelligence. In the article, McClurg says:

“I can’t imagine successfully protecting the people, processes and assets for which I was responsible or apprehending the threat actors posed against them without having access to insights on how and why these interests were at risk. I feel the same way today as a CISO navigating the cyber threat landscape that currently challenges us.”

February

4 security threats for 2023

In February, International SOS released its 2023 Risk Outlook report which showcased some of the major risks organizations would need to address in the coming year. 

Topping the list was the impact of geopolitical shifts, social unrest, climate change, and business travel. 

March

Security's 2023 Top Cybersecurity Leaders

In March, Security announced the 2023 Top Cybersecurity Leaders. Each year the award program highlights the accomplishments of innovative information security professionals across sectors.

In 2023 we honored Alex Holden – Founder and Chief Information Security Officer of Hold Security; Ariel Weintraub – Head of Enterprise Cyber Security at MassMutual; Hardeep Mehrotara - Director, Information Security & Architecture at Concert Properties; Jadee Hanson - Chief Information Officer & Chief Information Security Officer at Code42; James Edgar - Senior Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer at FLEETCOR; Pam Nigro - VP, Security at Medecision; and Phillimon Zongo - Co-Founder and CEO at Cyber Leadership Institute.

All awardee job titles and companies are current as of the Top Cybersecurity Leaders publication in March 2023. For more details on the awardees, please check out the profile articles on our website, securitymagazine.com.

April

Cybersecurity leaders reflect on Samsung, ChatGPT incidents

Popular AI chatbot ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, has been used to help with everything from writing emails, term papers to finding bug fixes in code. In the top news story for April, security leaders shared their thoughts after it was discovered that three Samsung employees shared company information with ChatGPT.

Mike Parkin, Senior Technical Engineer at Vulcan Cyber said: “ChatGPT can be great for a lot of things, but people need to stop pretending that it's confidential or secure. It's not. It's not an evil monster that'll destroy the world, but that doesn't mean it can't do some damage when you feed it information it really shouldn't have.”

May 

47% of all internet traffic came from bots in 2022

In May, Imperva released its 10th annual Bad Bot Report, a global analysis of automated bot traffic across the internet. The report revealed that in 2022, 47.4% of all internet traffic came from bots, a 5.1% increase over the previous year. The same report showed that human traffic, at 52.6%, decreased to its lowest level in eight years.

June

Mitigating workplace violence through duty of care

Each year, more than 2 million people in the United States alone fall victim to some sort of workplace violence, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. In a June article, Julian Moro,  Senior Vice President & Regional Security Director, Americas, at International SOS, discussed how organizations can mitigate workplace violence through duty of care saying: 

“A work environment that doesn’t address workplace violence risk will conceal issues that will negatively impact employees’ morale, productivity and retention, consequently impacting business operations.”

July

Security's Women in Security 2023

In July, Security magazine celebrated women who have shaped the security function in the industry with our annual Women in Security awards program. These awardees are dedicated change-makers in their organizations and the security industry as a whole. 

This year, we honored: Marifil Rodriguez —Director of Security, Capital One, Philippines; Lianne Potter — Head of Security Operations, Asda; Kristen Devitt — Regional Director of Security, Kaiser Permanente; Karen Delgado — Director of Surveillance, Empire City Casino by MGM Resorts International; Jordan Rae Kelly — Senior Managing Director and Head of Cybersecurity for the Americas, FTI Consulting; Coral Gottlieb — Director of Business Resilience and Safety, Levi Strauss & Co.; Cadisha Miceli — Senior Security Coordinator, City of Toronto; Alissa Abdullah — Senior Vice President and Deputy Chief Security Officer, Mastercard; and Adrian Ruiz — Director, Safety, Security and Quality Assurance at Valley Metro. 

All awardee job titles and companies are current as of publication of Security’s Women in Security in July 2023. For more details on the awardees, please check out the profile articles on our website, securitymagazine.com.

August 

Expanding the security candidate pool

The August Security magazine Special Report dove into the challenges security teams face in hiring the diverse talent needed to solve evolving challenges and mitigate new and future security threats. Security leaders shared their thoughts on meeting those challenges and how to expand the security talent pool.

Marlene Baur, Vice President, Senior Security Manager at Citi said: “I think attracting and retaining go hand-in-hand. As an industry, we need to create more opportunities for the incoming workforce so people with a general interest in security can understand what we do. I think if the industry offered more security internships, we could develop a workforce that’s excited and passionate about what we do.”

September

Security’s Most Influential People in Security 2023

In September, Security magazine celebrated leaders who have shaped the security industry with our Most Influential People in Security. This editorial awards project recognizes some of the security executives, industry experts and professionals effecting change, influencing their organizations, and making a difference each and every day in the complex, ever-changing world of security and risk management. 

This year, we honored: Ava Cooper-Davis — Global and U.S. Chief Security Officer at Deloitte; Clar Rosso — Chief Executive Officer at ISC2; Colin Daugherty — Director, Corporate Security, Americas at VF Corporation; Eric Vélez-Villar — Assistant Director at FBI Office of the Private Sector; Gregory Robinson — Vice President, Global Corporate Security at TransUnion; Jennifer Williams — Senior Director of Information Security at Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan; Liz Cathcart — Executive Director at Hostage US; Matthew Horace — Chief Security Officer at Pretium & Progress Residential; Michael Dorn — Executive Director at Safe Havens International; Robert Soderberg — Vice President, Enterprise Safety & Security and Chief Safety, Security & Resiliency Officer at Adtalem Global Education; Scott Ashworth —Head of Safety and Security at Overtime Elite; and Yonah Alexander — Member of the Board of Regents, Senior Fellow and Director of International Center for Terrorism Studies at Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.

All awardee job titles and companies are current as of publication of Security’s Most Influential People in Security in September 2023. For more details on the awardees, please check out the profile articles on our website, securitymagazine.com.

October

Henry Schein announces data breach

In October, Henry Schein announced that part of the company's manufacturing and distribution business suffered a data breach in September. In response, the company took certain systems offline while it worked to resolve the issue.

In a December filing with Maine’s attorney general, the company stated that the personal information of more than 29,000 people, including 38 Maine residents, may have been accessed in the Sept. 27 cybersecurity incident.

After the incident was discovered, the company began working with outside cybersecurity and forensic information technology experts to help investigate any data impact and respond to this situation. Henry Schein also notified relevant law enforcement authorities. 

November

The 2023 Security Benchmark Report

The 2023 Security Benchmark Report is an editorial initiative that collects self-reported data from enterprise security programs across the globe and a wide range of market sectors to determine trends in security roles, responsibilities, technology, training and budget.

The goal with the annual report is to provide a comparison of enterprise security programs across the security field and within market sectors. Each year we release the report, we aim to build a wider picture of how enterprise security programs change, grow and mature year-over-year. Be sure to check out the full report on our website, securitymagazine.com. 

December 

The 2023 Annual Guarding Report: Finding the right mix of human and machine

December’s Security magazine Special Report featured the 2023 Annual Guarding Report. In the report, security executives and guarding companies identified trends in security guarding throughout 2023, from emerging robotics to training strategies.

In the article, Rachelle Loyear, Vice President of Integrated Security Solutions at Allied Universal said: “Civil unrest across the globe can impact you locally, whether you operate there or not. CEOs and CSOs are concerned about supply-chain stability; they’re concerned about wars. There are huge problems with the cost-of-living crisis driving organized and mass theft attacks in retail. It’s a very interesting shift.”