The team at Ontic provide their overview of what’s to come in the security industry in 2024, including an emphasis on potential threats, digital communities and senior security turnover.
Lukas Quanstrom, Chief Executive OfficerThis year, the macroeconomic environment may lead companies to consolidate the technology solutions they use as they move toward focusing on traditional business efficiency metrics. Major companies will start looking at SaaS vendors with a single question in mind: “How big of a problem do you solve for me?” Vendors, in turn, will make moves to ensure they’re solving big problems in two ways.
First, ramp up integrations with other services and emphasise open ecosystems. People expect stuff to work with other stuff. Second, they’ll work with partners that emphasise data as a value proposition. To solve big problems, you need big data and actionable insights from that data.
Chuck Randolph, Chief Security OfficerIn 2024, the role of intelligence within risk mitigation will become increasingly crucial, driven by the surge in misinformation and disinformation generated by artificial intelligence.
The proliferation of AI technologies will empower researchers with an array of new tools, but it will also create opportunities for the spread of disinformation and the emergence of uncertainty.
This dynamic will compel organisations to grapple with fundamental inquiries such as our knowledge base, its validity, and the means of verification. As a result, there will be a growing demand for individuals adept at utilising open-source intelligence to confirm or debunk potential threats.
Manish Mehta, Chief Product OfficerIn 2024, we’ll likely see increased activity on fringe social media sites. This growing activity on unmoderated platforms is a breeding ground for unknown threats as they are not visible on mainstream social media sources.
Security teams will be challenged to monitor discussions in smaller and harder-to-find digital communities. Any company that can be impacted by alternative social media communities is going to need tools and processes to stay ahead.
We’ll continue to see turnover among senior security executives in 2024. After guiding their organisations through years of perma-crisis, many security leaders are seeing this as a good time to step down and allow others to take the reins.
Organisations can prepare for turnover in senior security positions by looking at succession planning in security leadership, talking directly with current security personnel about their plans to stay or leave, and getting input from departing senior security personnel in the types of training and professional development needed to build up their own internal skills set among current employees.
The 2024 presidential election in the US will make certain aspects of the security environment unpredictable due to misinformation, conspiracy theories, and heated rhetoric. Companies could find themselves embroiled in controversy, even when they don’t take a stand or publicly support a candidate.
Organisations should work now to understand their geographic and operating footprint and review plans for protests, threats, and other disturbances. They also need to make sure they have good collection processes to pick up intelligence that may signal a threat or a protest.
Finally, understanding how vocal business leaders or employees may be about an upcoming election beforehand can help security professionals prepare in advance for any potential situations that may emerge.
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