Lack of knowledge or awareness: Many customers simply don’t know what they don’t know. They may underestimate or deny the threat or the virility of the threat—or presume they’re protected when they’re not.

Continually evolving threats: Just as Mystique in the X-Men films uses her shapeshifting ability, so, too, do many cyberthreats. Once a threat has been detected, it morphs into an entirely new threat, ready to attack endpoints and infiltrate networks.

Difficulty with detection: Where early attacks were created for attention, today’s cybercriminals deliberately design attacks so as not to be detected. After all, the longer they can stay undetected, the more damage they can do.

More attack surfaces: IT estates have become far more complex and nuanced. There are more users, more stakeholders, more devices, more locations and data everywhere. The result is many more attack surfaces to protect.

Global skills shortage: The security skills shortage is well documented, and it isn’t expected to resolve in the near term. While larger companies may have their own cybersecurity experts, they may consider offloading routine security tasks to focus on business innovation. Organizations with few resources may need to outsource this function.

Fragmented cybersecurity market: Knowing which products to choose from thousands of technology vendors and products—and how best to use them—requires detailed knowledge of the cybersecurity market.

Continual employee training: Cybercriminals will try to get unwitting employees to do something that grants them access. Continual employee training will help increase awareness and enable employees to better respond to potential threats.

Bandwidth issues: As organizations press forward with their digital transformation plans, their in-house cybersecurity teams may be tied up on routine tasks when they’re needed for innovation.

Changing security needs: Cybersecurity is not a fixed thing. It must constantly evolve to accommodate changing business conditions, such as a global pandemic.

Patching and updating: The average time to apply, test and fully deploy patches to endpoints is 97 days, leaving an open window of vulnerability and potential unplanned downtime.