Splunk

52% of respondents say their team is overworked.

43% of respondents face unrealistic expectations by leadership.

57% of respondents report losing valuable investigation time to data management gaps.

Nearly half (46%) of respondents spend more time maintaining tools than defending the organization.

59% of organizations have moderately or significantly boosted their efficiency with AI.

78% of respondents say sharing data with observability teams resolves incidents faster.

Over half (56%) of respondents have prioritized the application of AI to security workflows this year.

31% of SOCs are using GenAI for Querying security data.

52% of respondents say stress on the job has prompted them to think about leaving cybersecurity altogether.

66% of organizations experienced a data breach in the past year, making it the most common security incident.

29% of SOCs are using GenAI for Writing/editing security policies.

78% of respondents say their security tools are dispersed and disconnected.

Only 11% of organizations fully trust AI for mission-critical tasks.

78% of respondents cited faster incident detection as a moderate to transformative benefit of a unified approach for threat detection and response.

66% of respondents noted quicker remediation as a moderate to transformative benefit of a unified approach for threat detection and response

59% of respondents report having too many alerts.

33% of SOCs are using GenAI for Threat intelligence analysis.

1 in 3 (33%) of respondents plan to fill skills gaps with AI and automation.

Compared to publicly available tools, 63% agree that domain-specific AI significantly or extremely enhances security operations.

59% of respondents say tool maintenance is the main source of inefficiency.

69% say disconnected and dispersed tools creates moderate to significant challenges.

55% of respondents report having to address too many false positives.

79% of CISOs say KPIs for their security teams have changed substantially over recent years.

Cost-saving measures reported by CISOs include reduced security solutions and tools (50%), security hiring freezes (40%), and decreased or eliminated security training (36%).

82% of security leaders report directly to the CEO in 2024, which is up from 47% in 2023.

51% of CISOs see upskilling or reskilling security employees as a priority, versus 27% of boards.

36% of CISOs consider contributing to revenue growth initiatives a priority compared to 24% of board members.

46% of CISOs said attaining security milestones was indicative of their success, compared to only 19% of board respondents.

18% of CISOs revealed they were unable to support a business initiative because of budget cuts in the last 12 months.

59% of CISOs said they would become a whistleblower if their organisation was ignoring compliance requirements.

64% of CISOs said that lack of support led to a cyberattack.

21% of CISOs revealed they had been pressured not to report a compliance issue.

83% of security leaders participate in board meetings "somewhat often" or "most of the time".

64% of CISOs reveal that the current threat and regulatory environment make them concerned they’re not doing enough.

CISOs with good board relationships are more likely to be given the ability to pursue use cases for generative AI, such as creating threat detection rules (43% versus 31% of other CISOs), analyzing data sources (45% versus 28% of other CISOs), incident response and forensic investigations (42% versus 29% of other CISOs), and proactive threat hunting (46% versus 28% of other CISOs).

57% of CISOs prioritize regulation and compliance knowledge, compared to 44% of board members.

29% of CISOs say they receive the proper budget for cybersecurity initiatives, compared to 41% of board members who think cybersecurity budgets are adequate.

More board members than CISOs want CISOs to develop certain skills: Business acumen: 55% of board members vs 40% of CISOs, emotional intelligence: 45% of board members vs 35% of CISOs, Communication: 52% of board members vs 47% of CISOs.

52% of CISOs consider innovating with emerging technologies a priority, compared to 33% of board members.

53% of CISOs say their responsibilities and job expectations have become more difficult since they took the job.

15% of CISOs ranked compliance status as a top performance metric, compared to 45% of boards.

18% of CISOs claimed they were unable to support a business initiative due to budget cuts in the past year, and 64% said that lack of support led to a cyberattack.

Only 29% of CISOs say their board includes at least one member with cybersecurity expertise.

When there is a CISO on the board, 80% of boards report excellent or very good working relationships with CISOs in setting and aligning on strategic cybersecurity goals, versus 27% when there isn't a CISO on the board.

For boards with a CISO member, 60% report excellent or very good working relationships when communicating progress against milestones, security goal achievement and plan of record, compared to 16% for boards without a CISO member.

More board members than CISOs want CISOs to develop certain skills: Business acumen: 55% of board members vs 40% of CISOs, emotional intelligence: 45% of board members vs 35% of CISOs, Communication: 52% of board members vs 47% of CISOs.

50% of boards with a CISO member report excellent or very good relationships when budgeting adequately to meet goals, compared to 24% for boards without a CISO member.

60% of board members acknowledge that board members with cybersecurity backgrounds more heavily influence security decisions.

Board members with a CISO background report stronger relationships with security teams and feel more confident about the organisation’s security posture.

37% of board members with a CISO background express concern that they are not doing enough to protect the organisation, compared to a survey average of 62%.