and services leveraging emerging technologies such as GenAI, one in two organizations now consider “evolving technology” as a primary security threat in the coming 12 months, up from the 35 percent that said the same in 2024. Another interesting phenomenon seen in the Forta findings was the perceived risk of zerodayattacks dropping dramatically, falling from 50 percent of respondents in 2024 to 38 percent this year. “This could be due to better detection and response tools in the market (and in security stacks) and the fact that so many of this year’s AI-driven cyber tools claim to specialize in zero-day mitigation,” surmised the survey. Turning from perceived threats to organizations’ top cybersecurity initiatives for the year, security experts responded that identifying and closing security gaps was first on their list (77 percent). “It could be that companies are on the defensive as new forms of AI-based threats loom on the horizon and sprawling data feels exposed in an ever-growing cloud,” said Forta analysts. Notably, improving security awareness, including through explicit company policies and employee training, took the number two spot, listed by 75 percent of respondents (up from 66 percent last year). “It was encouraging to see a bump in these metrics, as teams know you can implement as many tools as you want, but your first line of defense is always your staff (especially in an era when social engineering sophistication is rapidly on the rise),” Forta analysts continued. Somewhat surprisingly, the priority of “securing data in the cloud” dropped from 63 percent in 2024 to 54 percent this year. That could be less about the importance of the cloud, however, and more because cloud security is so ubiquitous now that it has ceased to be an “initiative” and has just been adopted into the “day to day,” argued the Forta study. Partners that are able to discuss solution procurement and vendor consolidation, meanwhile, are more likely to get a seat at the table, as well. “Speaking of security concerns, it seems that the vendor sprawl ‘boom’ of the past decade or so might finally be ready to ‘bust,’” said Forta analysts. When asked how many security vendors were currently in use at their organizations, 70 percent of respondents answered that they use fewer than 20. “This is a huge departure from the 60 to 75 vendors estimated in use by the average company even earlier this year,” they continued. Indeed, a full 61 percent of cybersecurity professionals surveyed expressed that they had already begun the process of vendor consolidation or were planning to start it, possibly leveraging the help of managed services. Vendor consolidation, as Forta analysts pointed out, has been encouraged by the fact that vendors themselves are taking on more tasks. “Now, instead of offering single-solution products, more vendors are offering multiple features on a single product,” said the survey report. “This helps to eliminate unnecessary overhead and remove the management burden that comes with multiple tools and companies.” Overall, among those respondents that engage in managed services, the majority (60 percent) used them for penetration testing services to satisfy compliance requirements – representing a significant increase in outsourcing – followed by email security/anti-phishing (56 percent) and vulnerability management (47percent). “This is a notable trend as these solutions are proactive and preventative, rather than reactive and response oriented,” Forta analysts concluded. “It would denote a priority shift among defenders to stop breaches before they start, rather than investing solely in outside entities that could help with cleanup alone.” o Top Drivers of Vendor Consolidation Improved security posture 71% Cost savings 69% Reducing operational management 66% Time savings 44% Other 6% Source: Forta 2025 State of Cybersecurity Survey How confident are you in your knowledge, of the security tools you deploy? Source: Forta 2025 State of Cybersecurity Survey US Monthly Robocall Volume Source: YouMail Robocall Index Very confident Somewhat confident Confident Not confident 58% 20% 19% 3% 6,000,000,000 5,000,000,000 4,000,000,000 3,000,000,000 2,000,000,000 1,000,000,000 Feb-17 Aug-17 Aug-18 Feb-18 Feb-19 Aug-19 Aug-20 Aug-21 Aug-22 Aug-23 Aug-24 Feb-20 Feb-21 Feb-22 Feb-23 Feb-24 AI-powered cyber-threats 24 CHANNELVISION | MARCH - APRIL 2025
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