The 2023 CISO Priorities Flashcard shows that automation investments are a top priority for CISOs. The report revealed that CISOs were looking into additional technologies — including AI and machine learning — to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their existing cybersecurity talent.

According to new data, the total number of employed cybersecurity workers in 2022 remained relatively unchanged from previous estimates. Demand for cybersecurity engineers and analysts remains steady amid cost-cutting layoffs across the tech sector and the industry is still struggling to build up the workforce to meet this growing demand, leaving organizations to readjust their priorities in 2023 to fill the gap. 

With so many areas to focus on, cybersecurity leaders are investing in increased efficiencies rather than reducing costs. Results from the report show they will pay greater attention to addressing the most pertinent risks facing their organization including: 

• 86% of cybersecurity leaders are prioritizing automating threat detection and response.
• 81% of cybersecurity leaders are prioritizing the shift from legacy cybersecurity platforms to cloud-native platforms. 
• 84% of cybersecurity leaders are prioritizing integrating and automating cybersecurity capabilities with new and existing technologies. 

As hacks and breaches continue to increase, every layer of defense is important for organizations to have a holistic cybersecurity strategy. Emerging from these present issues, 79% of cybersecurity leaders plan to adopt or expand threat hunting, 74% plan to bring part of their cybersecurity operations in-house in order to strategically manage vulnerabilities, 73% plan to optimize SOC alert management and 73% plan to implement a zero trust strategy.  

This exploratory study was carried out by collecting voluntary responses from 213 cybersecurity leaders. All responses were collected between Dec 15, 2022 and Jan 10, 2023 from directors of cybersecurity, CISOs or similar roles across the United States.