In an era of relentless technological and business disruption, security programs and team performance are being pushed to their limits. Security and risk management (SRM) leaders must focus on enabling business value while embedding resilience at the organizational, personal, and team levels. This dual approach is essential for demonstrating the effectiveness of security programs in 2025.
To help security leaders effectively navigate the challenges posed by an ever-evolving threat landscape, widening talent gaps, and increasing regulatory oversight, Gartner has identified the top trends in cybersecurity for 2025. Addressing these trends is crucial for staying ahead in this dynamic environment.
The following six trends will have a significant impact across these areas:
Trend 1: GenAI Driving Data Security Programs
Most security efforts and financial resources are traditionally focused on protecting structured data such as databases. However, the rise of GenAI is transforming data security programs, shifting focus to protect unstructured data — text, images and videos.
Many organizations have completely reoriented their investment strategies, which has significant implications for large language model (LLM) training, data deployment and inference processes. Ultimately, this shift underscores the changing priorities that leaders must address as they communicate the impact of GenAI on their programs.
Trend 2: Managing Machine Identities
Increasing adoption of GenAI, cloud services, automation and DevOps practices, has led to the prolific use of machine accounts and credentials for physical devices and software workloads. If left uncontrolled and unmanaged, machine identities can significantly expand an organization’s attack surface.
According to Gartner, SRM leaders are under pressure to build a strategy to implement robust machine identity and access management (IAM) to protect against attacks, but it must be a coordinated enterprise-wide effort. A Gartner survey of 335 IAM leaders globally, conducted between August and October 2024, found that IAM teams are only responsible for 44% of an organization’s machine identities.
Trend 3: Tactical AI
SRM leaders are facing mixed results with their AI implementations, leading them to reprioritize their initiatives and focus on narrower use cases with direct measurable impacts. These more tactical implementations align AI practices and tools with existing metrics, fit them into existing initiatives, and enhance visibility of the real value of AI investments.
SRM leaders now have clear responsibilities to secure third-party AI consumption, protect enterprise AI applications and improve cybersecurity with AI. By focusing on more tactical, demonstrably beneficial improvements, they can minimize the risks for their cybersecurity programs and can more easily demonstrate progress.
Trend 4: Cybersecurity Technology Optimization
According to a Gartner survey of 162 large enterprises, conducted between August and October 2024, organizations use an average of 45 cybersecurity tools. With over 3,000 vendors in cybersecurity, SRM leaders need to optimize their toolsets to build more efficient and effective security programs.
Gartner recommends aiming for a balance that procurement, security architects, security engineers, and other stakeholders are satisfied with to maintain the right security posture. To achieve this, SRM leaders should consolidate and validate core security controls and focus on architecture that enhances portability of data. Threat modeling and organizational technology drivers such as AI adoption can also be used to assess advanced needs.
Trend 5: Extending Security Behavior and Culture Program Value
Security behavior and culture programs (SBCPs) have reached an inflection point for most organizations. Effective SRM leaders recognize the value these programs bring to improve their cybersecurity posture. According to Gartner, one of the largest drivers of change in these programs is GenAI – enterprises combining the technology with an integrated platforms-based architecture in SBCPs will experience 40% fewer employee-driven cybersecurity incidents by 2026.
This trend is gaining traction due to increasing recognition that both good and bad human behavior are critical components of cybersecurity. As a result, cultural and behavior-focused activities have become a prominent approach to address cyber-risk comprehension and ownership at the human level. This reflects a strategic shift toward embedding security into the organizational culture.
Trend 6: Addressing Cybersecurity Burnout
SRM leader and security team burnout is a key concern for an industry already impacted by a systemic skills shortage, according to Gartner. This pervasive stress stems from relentless demands associated with securing highly complex organizations in constantly changing threat, regulatory and business environments, with limited authority, executive support and resources.
Cybersecurity burnout and its organizational impact must be recognized and addressed to ensure cybersecurity program effectiveness. The most effective SRM leaders are not only prioritizing their own stress management, but they are also investing in teamwide wellbeing initiatives that demonstrably improve personal resilience.
Gartner analysts are presenting key strategies and technologies in cybersecurity at the Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit, taking place through today in Mumbai.
Author Bio: Alex Michaels, Senior Principal Analyst at Gartner
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