Spending more on observability tools does not guarantee better vigilance either — due to infrastructure blind spots: survey

Based on an online survey early in 2024 of 234 CISOs around the world* on their cybersecurity preparedness insights, a network observability vendor has announced some trends from the data.

First, 44% of respondents indicated they were unable to detect a data breach in the last 12 months using existing security tools. Also, 70% indicated their existing security tools were not as effective as they could be when it came to detecting breaches, due to limited visibility.

Second, 81% cited “blind spots across hybrid cloud infrastructure” as a top concern, and that cloud security is dependent upon gaining complete visibility into all data-in-motion. This includes visibility into lateral (East West) traffic and encrypted traffic. Some 84% of all respondents listed gaining visibility into encrypted traffic as a priority.

Other findings

The third trend was: 76% of CISOs in the survey indicated being overwhelmed by the increasing volume of threats detected from a growing number of tools on an increasing number of assets. Also, six in 10 listed tool consolidation and optimization as their number one priority for remediating blind spots. Other trends:

  • 83% indicated expecting a significant impact from the potential of AI fueling the growth of global ransomware threats in 2025. Some 46% of respondents indicated they will use security automation and implement AI to remediate visibility gaps next year.
  • 82% agreed to prompts that deep observability is a foundational element of cloud security. Also, 85% agreed to prompts that having access to packet-level data and rich application metadata can unlock deeper insights, strengthening security posture.
  • 81% indicated that their directorial boards were discussing deep observability as a priority for 2025 budget planning.

According to Chaim Mazal, Chief Security Officer, Gigamon, the firm that commissioned the survey, modern cybersecurity is about differentiating between acceptable and unacceptable risk, and that “visibility into all data-in-motion… (is needed)… to secure complex hybrid cloud infrastructure against today’s emerging threats.”

*from Australia, France, Germany, Singapore, the UK and the US, as part of a larger survey on hybrid cloud security also commissioned by the firm