Risk

7 New Challenges CSOs Will Face in 2025

By Michael J. Martin | January 14, 2025 | 4 min read
Securityguard

What is in the future for security professionals? Chief Security Officers (CSOs) are likely to face several new challenges as we enter 2025, from increased risk to CEOs to AI-powered threats.


Below are our top seven predictions for the new year.

1. Threats against high-profile leaders

The Dec. 4 assassination of the United Healthcare CEO is a clear sign that CSOs need to start paying attention to threats against CEOs and other high-profile leaders. It’s time to reevaluate executive protection: that means protection when CEOs travel, protection at home, protection at work, and during commutes.

What can you do?

It’s common for CEOs to refuse executive protection, but in the wake of the recent assassination and a wave of threats against other company leaders, CSOs need to go on record as demanding it. It's the CSO's job to make the case for why executive protection is necessary, and to work with the CEO to create a plan that meets organizational needs as well as the CEO’s needs.

This can be a touchy discussion, since it affects the CEO’s personal life and safety. It may help for CSOs to point out that threats against leadership affect the whole company: stock can be affected by a tragedy, news cycles can be affected, and the ripples of violence are of course felt throughout an organization.

2. AI-powered threats

Cybersecurity continues to be a huge problem for businesses of all kinds, but now AI has entered the chat and raised the stakes. The rise of AI allows for more sophisticated attacks, as well as automated attacks capable of attacking multiple times through many different vectors. Generative AI has also led to more convincing social engineering attacks, such as phishing and smishing.

What can you do?

Preparation is the most important thing for CSOs when planning to address cyberthreats, and it's incumbent upon the CSO to investigate advanced detection and response to AI threats. Because humans are so often targeted in cyber attacks, make sure your people are trained to recognize a social engineering attack. Implement good cyber hygiene, and use tools like multi-factor authentication to keep credential theft attacks low. Zero trust is also an important part of protecting your organization, as is a plan for what you will do in the event of a breach.

3. Collecting security data

The security technology stack is getting deeper, and with more technology comes more data. While more data is a good thing, it can be overwhelming for CSOs — especially if there’s no way to take all the data from different systems and consolidate it into one dashboard for analysis.

What can you do?

A strong risk management platform can make all the difference when it comes to seeing security information in one pane of glass. This also goes beyond security information. Employee, demographic information, incident information, threat intelligence, and other data can be combined in one system to help CSOs with risk analysis.

4. Vendor risk management

Criminals have been targeting the supply chain, both physical and digital, and that’s unlikely to stop in the coming year. Because digital vendors are so interconnected, a risk to one organization is a risk to everyone in the supply chain. Your supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link, but it can be difficult to control the security of your vendors’ vendors.

What can you do?

The CSO — or CISO — must have a strategy to ensure that all the vendors along their cyber supply chain are adequately protecting themselves and their customers against cyber threats. What we often see is that a company may have security assurances for their tier one suppliers. However, those suppliers become lax with their own vendors. You can exert some control over the supply chain by using contractual requirements, however, and ensuring that your tier one suppliers do the same.

5. Political anxiety in the workplace

We’ve just come through a difficult election year, and we’re heading into a time of transition. Many in the workplace are feeling anxiety around the changing administration. There’s a possibility that people — both in your workforce and outside of it — will act out, affecting your business.

What can you do?

It’s important for a CSO to plan ahead for issues caused by political stress, anxiety, and anger. While no, political feelings shouldn’t be something that’s discussed at work, the reality is that sometimes tensions boil at work, and that shouldn’t be ignored. Instead, there are several actions that can be taken to address strong feelings and move forward as a business.

6. Data breaches

Data breaches have been on the rise, and it’s likely that most organizations will find themselves in a hacker’s crosshairs at least once. The stakes of a breach are high — data breaches interrupt business, expose sensitive data, cause reputational harm, and are the cause of lawsuits and regulatory fines.

What can you do?

No one wants to be the offending party in a data breach, but what happens if your company is breached and your customer data is lost? CSOs must have a detailed plan that can guide a step by step response to cyberattacks, breaches, and digital remediation.

7. Security awareness and training

The job market has calmed down in the last year, with workers staying in their current roles, and fewer job openings. It’s easy for a CSO to relax into this new reality, but it’s no time to become complacent.

What can you do?

This is a perfect time to invest in training, security awareness, and other important initiatives. Without as much turnover, your workforce will benefit from development initiatives aimed at keeping them — and your organization — safe.

Contact us now for a demo, and keep your sites safe in 2025.


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