Where cybersecurity made strides in 2024

There's plenty to say about the failures that let hackers inside companies this year.

• But senior officials and industry executives say there's also a lot to be proud of in 2024.

I spent the last week asking them what those successes — and failures (see below) — actually are. Here's what they said:

Todd McKinnon, CEO of Okta: "There was more collaboration across the industry. Security is a team sport, and we're all focused on the same threats. We have to work together to win — we can't rest on our laurels."

Hari Ravichandran, founder and CEO of Aura: "There has been a lot of enthusiasm around consumer education and security awareness, so I think consumers are getting a lot smarter about what to look for to identify threats."

Frederic Rivain, chief technology officer at Dashlane: "Confidential computing is starting to be a thing."

• "Apple, OpenAI, Signal and others have announced plans to invest into confidential computing and ensure privacy of data in use. I have been a strong advocate for a long time that we should do better to protect the privacy of sensitive user data."

Dave Zilberman, general partner, Norwest Venture Partners: "AI for security" was the biggest win, with "security companies embedding generative AI capabilities to improve operational automation and efficiency."

Richard Cassidy, field CISO at Rubrik: "More organizations are adopting a data-first approach, enabling them to maintain operations and safeguard stakeholders even when attackers breach initial defenses."

• "This evolution in strategy reflects a more profound understanding that prevention is not the answer, and a shift in mindset to preparation and recovery is critical."

Danny Allan, CTO at Snyk: "We're beginning to see [machine learning] filters becoming increasingly more effective at triage, while Gen AI is providing ready-made solutions for security issues."

• "We might be early on truly autonomous acceptance, but it drastically reduces the cognitive load on the organization to address the problems that are prioritized."

Omer Grossman, chief information officer at CyberArk: "The biggest cyber win was the CISA campaign to bolster trust in the U.S. elections."

• "CISA's #Protect2024 efforts to mitigate malicious influence operations were truly commendable and Jen Easterly provided consistent, visible leadership and messaging — including in song(!)."

What we're watching: Cybersecurity is far from solved — there's a reason we all still work in this space.