Cybersecurity programs are under more pressure than ever before.
Organizations face a growing gap between the scale of cyber threats and their ability to respond effectively. High-profile incidents, increasing attack automation, and expanding digital infrastructure have raised the stakes. At the same time, security teams face tighter budgets, complex tool stacks, and growing scrutiny from senior leadership.
This whitepaper from Fastly presents findings from a global security research report conducted in partnership with Sapio Research. Based on insights from 1,800 IT decision-makers with responsibility for cybersecurity, the report examines why organizations feel caught between rising risk and constrained investment and what they can do to move forward.
The research highlights a critical reality. While most organizations expect cybersecurity investment to increase, many still feel underprepared to recover from incidents, manage complexity, and justify security spend to the board.
You will learn how:
- Organizations consistently underestimate the time required to recover from cyber incidents
- Fastly research shows recovery takes significantly longer than expected across industries
- Cybersecurity investment intentions often fail to translate into real risk reduction
- Fragmented security tools increase cost, complexity, and operational inefficiency
- Talent shortages and skills gaps limit the ability to scale cybersecurity programs
- Accountability for cybersecurity incidents remains unclear across many organizations
- Consolidation and security-by-design approaches help reduce risk and improve resilience
The whitepaper also explores how cybersecurity responsibility is shifting across organizations. While CISOs face increased scrutiny and potential liability, many companies still lack clear ownership for incident response. At the same time, employees remain a primary target for attackers through social engineering, phishing, and account takeover attacks.
Fastly’s research emphasizes the need to rethink cybersecurity strategy around prevention, consolidation, and embedding security earlier in the development lifecycle. By aligning cybersecurity investment with measurable risk reduction, organizations can better support innovation without increasing exposure.
This whitepaper is designed for CISOs, security leaders, IT executives, and business decision-makers seeking data-driven insight into the state of cybersecurity and practical guidance on navigating an increasingly complex threat landscape.
Download the whitepaper from Fastly to understand why cybersecurity is at a crossroads and how organizations can strengthen resilience while managing cost and complexity.
