Step 5:

Justify technology investments

How to prove the ROI of cybersecurity ▸ Step 5: Justify technology investments

Zylo’s 2024 SaaS Management Index found that companies waste an average of $18 million annually in unused or redundant SaaS licenses. This misspend can cause stakeholders to cut costs rather than increase investment. While tech investments can seem expensive, their ability to automate security tasks, scale threat detection, and reduce operational costs of security programs can drive significant ROI.

For example, investing in least privilege access tools can both improve your security posture and reduce costs. By deprovisioning and revoking access for inactive users, you can save on license fees and reduce the risk of unauthorized access. To make tech investments more appealing to stakeholders, highlight how they can help achieve your organization’s security goals while contributing directly to the bottom line.

Here are three core aspects to highlight when justifying security technology investments:

Automation: Security technologies can automate routine tasks, freeing up your security team to focus on more strategic initiatives. This can lead to increased productivity, improved morale, and a more effective security program. For example, automation tools can be used to streamline tasks such as vulnerability scanning, patch management, and incident response.
Scalability: As your organization grows, security technology can help you scale your threat detection capabilities without increasing headcount. This is especially important in a landscape where new threats are constantly emerging. Security technologies can help you stay ahead of the curve by automating threat detection and response processes.
Cost reduction: By automating tasks, reducing manual processes, and preventing security breaches, you can save on operational and compliance costs, while boosting employee productivity. In fact, organizations that invest in security AI and automation save an average of $2.22M USD per year.⁵ For example, automation tools can help you reduce the cost of incident response by automating tasks such as identifying the root cause of a breach, containing the damage, and restoring systems, as well as maintaining compliance with industry standards. This has the added benefit of freeing up employees to focus on higher value tasks. Additionally, security technologies can help you prevent breaches in the first place, saving you the cost of remediation and recovery.

At OneMain Financial, Domboski shows stakeholders the trend of attacks directed at the organization, comparing the percentage that were remediated with technology alone to those that required human involvement. “When they can see the specific impact of the technologies we’ve put into place, they can clearly understand the return on investment.”

How to prove the ROI of cybersecurity ▸ Step 5: Justify technology investments

5. Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024, IBM