From GDPR to CCPA, organizations have been navigating an alphabet soup of global privacy regulations. These are only going to grow as consumers become increasingly concerned about their personal information and governments step in to ensure that companies are enhancing their cybersecurity measures against malicious actors.

An increase in cybercrime, such as data breaches, phishing scams, credential abuse, and endpoint security attacks, will contribute to a projected 12% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in cybersecurity IT spending in 2021. In fact, 55% of enterprise executives plan to increase their cybersecurity budget in the coming year.

Organizations Need to Reassess Security Measures and Tech Stacks

As remote working has become the norm, with 86% of companies expected to retain their work-from-home policies after the pandemic ends, organizations need to strengthen their endpoint security. They also must create an agile security infrastructure in response to rapid changes in both governmental regulation and the increasing sophistication of organized cybercriminals.

Some key areas to focus on and technologies to invest in are zero-trust models, deception technologies, authentication solutions, access controls, application monitoring, and cloud-based security services.

The Rise of CISO and IT Security Talent

Having the right talent is the key to designing and executing an effective cybersecurity strategy. To support rapid digitalization and increasing data privacy regulations, CISOs are playing a bigger role by focusing on not only the technical aspects of information security, but also company-wide communication and operational excellence. This is key to building trust and enforcing security measures across the entire organization.

However, it will likely become more challenging to hire security talent in 2021 thanks to the dramatic increase in demand. Many organizations have started using remote security professionals or retraining target training current staff in non-security roles (e.g., IT, finance, operations) to enhance their prior knowledge with a security and data protection skillset.

Emphasize Data Protection and Cybersecurity in Your Organization

The new business environment of 2021 and beyond has hastened the pace of digital transformation in today’s organizations. Cybersecurity and managing global data privacy regulations are key considerations that no organization can afford to overlook.

Therefore, it’s important to emphasize IT security to support the many digitization initiatives for ongoing success.

Securing your data not only protects your customers’ information but also helps you avoid hefty penalties. For instance, GDPR fines are rising exponentially (up to 10 million euros), and CCPA penalties aren’t far behind.