Security Technology Vision 2016

Security Technology Vision 2016

Empowering Your Cyber Defenders to Enable Digital Trust

The digital economy introduces new risks and threats to challenge cyber defender capabilities…

Pace of change

New technologies

Changing workforce models

Increased connectedness

Huge scale of software operations

Expanded attack surfaces

More sophisticated, higher volume

of attacks

Ongoing privacy concerns

Copyright © 2016 Accenture All rights reserved. 2

… and attackers are overwhelming organizations that lack skilled resources to properly defend the enterprise • Attackers use increasingly sophisticated tools and

techniques to target businesses• 45 percent of companies say they have difficulty

finding qualified security personnel


Underpinning all of this change is the mandate to boost security’s effectiveness in supporting the business’ efforts to attain digital trust.

Technology alone cannot resolve enterprise security threats

To establish robust security capabilities, organizations need the right skills at the right level at the right time and to:

• Scale quickly to meet new challenges in cyber defense• Attract and retain highly skilled resources• Elevate their existing workforce with enhanced skills

and supporting technology to reach new levels of performance


In the next five years intelligent automation and the liquid workforce will bring significant changes in how security professionals work and how they use technology to defend and empower the enterprise

Intelligent Automation

Outsized impact on the security workforce

Liquid Workforce


Intelligent automation applies artificial intelligence, process automation and visualization to enhance a security professional’s capabilities

Artificial intelligence (AI) • Helps security professionals understand the larger context

of a threat • Supports process automation, allowing security teams

to execute automated actions as threats emerge and evolve

Visualization • Harnesses the human ability to recognize patterns quickly

and pick out anomalies• Helps professionals quickly understand cascades of data• Provides real-time views of the entire enterprise with

advanced graphics processingCopyright © 2016 Accenture All rights reserved. 6

The liquid workforce reduces challenges in accessing scarce security talent by enabling more flexible workforce arrangements

• Freelancing, crowdsourcing and broad-based collaboration will offer a much larger pool of security expertise to organizations.

• Outsourcing security jobs will require that organizations leverage service providers they trust and who bring well-vetted resources to the table.

• Accenture believes 40% of a business’ entire workforce will be freelance by 2020.

• Enterprises should maintain a core of highly-skilled security people that are augmented with outside resources. Copyright © 2016 Accenture All rights

reserved. 7

What are the next steps leadership should take to prepare for the future security workforce?

Identify repetitive and low-impact activities that can be automated to scale security effectiveness.

Look for security challenges where automated decisions make sense and where quick action can reduce the cost of security incidents.

Increase visual literacy and focus on presenting security-related data in compelling and insightful ways.

Evaluate where a liquid workforce approach could help: address chronic staffing issues, fill a short-term skilled role, or support teams with a broader perspective on data.


To find out more please visit www.accenture.com/SecurityVision


http://www.accenture.com/Securityvision

Security Technology Vision 2016

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