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The wave of cyber attacks does not match the number of information security officers (infosec) needed to respond to the crimes. There are more high-profile data breaches reported now than a few years ago.

Organizations are finally taking notice of the importance of paying attention to security risks and they are taking steps to mitigate them.

Gartner’s paper Predicts 2018: Security Solutions, the information technology research and advisory company lists its three security market predictions that will change the security and threat dynamics for solutions providers.

Automation will be key

This could be the answer to the insufficient number of infosec officers in organizations. The report said that Gartner saw an increasing demand for automation tasks that were previously performed by humans. “This automation will be enabled by the advancement of predictive and prescriptive analytics,” the report said.

Gartner also sees that by 2021, 20 percent of buyers will invest in “heavily weight automation” to be able to have a more effective response to security threats.

It expects technology service providers to “Invest as much time in creating metrics for automation as you do for feature enhancement.”

Exploit the benefits of M&A opportunities

There is a growing trend of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) among vendors and this may be good news for security threat responders because it will boost competitiveness in terms of products and services. Gartner mentions that mobile malware will “quickly become roughly one-third of the total reported malware by 2019.” That is a huge leap from 7.5 percent of reported malware in standard tests today. One example of the benefits of M&A is Symantec’s acquisition of Skycure, which allowed it to expand its mobile endpoint security offerings. “At least one-third of leading EPP vendors will acquire mobile threat detection companies to complete their endpoint protection suites,” the report says.

Gartner sees technology service providers to “Dedicate staff to identify and vet opportunities, execute transactions and support integration across the entire business.”

Continue to incorporate regulatory and compliance needs

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has clearly rocked the boat in terms of data security. Gartner sees that the need to comply with these data security requirements — GDPR, Payment Card Industry (PCI) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) — will compel partnerships among organizations in the data security space. “Optimize opportunities for success by aligning product capabilities and messaging around the traditional drivers of compliance and risk, and ensure solutions address the requirements of continuous security strategies such as continuous adaptive risk and trust assessment (CARTA),” the report says.

The Gartner report also advises technology service providers to “Help your customers apply a continuous risk- and trust-based assessment approach to data by shaping your product capabilities with CARTA in mind.”