Cyber threats are increasing in both scale and sophistication, prompting businesses to significantly ramp up their investment in security. From firewalls to threat intelligence feeds, today’s enterprises have access to an expansive arsenal of digital defenses. Yet despite this unprecedented spending, breaches are still occurring, and systems are still underperforming. In fact, according to the Logicalis 2025 CIO report, 88% of organizations experienced cybersecurity incidents in the past 12 months, and 43% endured multiple breaches.
The same research found that over half of CIOs surveyed say their security patching systems have become too complex to manage effectively. What’s more, 50% acknowledge that they are not getting good value from their security tools because the features go unused. In other words, CIOs are spending more, but they are spending inefficiently, and in some cases, ineffectively.
The growing complexity of security systems could become one of the biggest vulnerabilities in enterprise IT.
CISO Cybersecurity Strategy Executive Advisor at Logicalis.
The illusion of more
Over the past decade, the IT market has exploded with tools. The typical security stack has grown exponentially in response to emerging threats, new regulations and gaps that have been revealed when a breach elsewhere sets off alarm bells. While each solution is well-intended, its cumulative effect can be counterproductive.
Rather than strengthening security posture, the “more is better” approach has led to environments where vulnerabilities hide in plain sight. In fact, only 58% of CIOs feel confident in their ability to identify potential security gaps. This highlights a troubling disconnect between IT leaders’ awareness of cyber risk and their actual capacity to defend against it. The very tools designed to safeguard the business can end up creating blind spots. When security systems become too complex, they overwhelm teams, slow down decision-making, and give threats more time to cause damage.
Simple but effective
Simplifying cybersecurity doesn’t mean cutting corners or weakening defense areas, it’s about assessing tools with intent in order to create a manageable system.
This can start with a foundational assessment: what are we trying to protect and why? What tools overlap? Where are the gaps? Which capabilities are going unused? Where is the complexity slowing the team down?
Organizations need a clear, continuously updated understanding of their digital assets, attack surfaces, and business priorities. Maintaining an accurate asset inventory is more than good cyber hygiene, it’s essential to prioritizing risk and responding quickly when incidents occur.
From this foundation, businesses can begin to:
- Consolidate tools – Through the use of integrated platforms, businesses can protect multiple areas at once. They offer layered security for various elements of a business in a single unified framework, increasing visibility and reducing the operational load on already stretched IT teams
- Outsource – Outsourcing functions such as monitoring and threat detection, and patching to security specialists frees up internal resources to focus on more strategic initiatives
- Introducing automation – Manual processes can often be overwhelming, time-consuming and prone to error. Automation can slash task times and help with overall efficiency
- Align security purchases with business outcomes – By ensuring spend is directly tied to business objectives, businesses can direct their investments to where matters the most
This urgency to simplify is further underscored by the tightening of global regulations such as the EU AI act. A growing wave of privacy and data protection laws is pushing businesses toward greater transparency and accountability. These regulations demand that organizations have their systems in order, as they may be required at any moment to produce records and demonstrate clear, auditable compliance.
With this approach, businesses can build a leaner security posture where threats are anticipated instead of constantly chased. By taking bold, proactive steps to streamline cybersecurity today, businesses will be far better equipped to handle the risks and seize the opportunities of the digital landscape now and in the future.
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