CyberSaint Blog | Expert Thought

Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit

Written by Ethan Bresnahan | June 13, 2019

Next week, forward-thinking security and risk leaders will congregate in National Harbor for Gartner’s annual Security and Risk Management Summit. As the preeminent voice in the transition from traditional governance risk and compliance activities to the much needed integrated risk management approach, Gartner has released thought-provoking insights and research on how business can deliver on an enterprise-wide strategy that supports customers, strengthens partnerships, and allows for increased resilience. The CyberSaint team is excited to show how the CyberStrong platform aligns with Gartner’s vision for integrated risk management.

The State of the Shift to IRM

When Gartner released the first integrated risk management magic quadrant in 2018, it marked the shift in the needs of the risk and compliance industry. The days of siloed and fragmented risk and compliance teams that could rely on a modular solution were fading fast - CISOs and even CEOs and Boards needed something more. Gartner, seeing this change in the function of information security teams, recognized that change with a new term - integrated risk management. As we’ve discussed on this blog before, IRM is a reconfiguration of the activities that GRC brought to light and what cybersecurity teams were built on. Yet, when CEOs and Boards are driven to take a greater interest in the cybersecurity posture of the enterprise, it became apparent that GRC could not support these new demands.

We are almost a year out from the release of the first integrated risk management magic quadrant and about two years out from Gartner when Gartner first used the term integrated risk management.The transition has been fundamental and fruitful - as more organizations recognize the need for an integrated approach, we at CyberSaint have seen security leaders spurning heavy, modular GRC products in lieu of nimble, flexible IRM solutions like CyberStrong. Given that it is a fundamental change to the way organizations approach security, the change has not happened overnight. We have examined where GRC and GRC activities fit in an integrated risk management approach as many organizations cannot make the shift immediately. Especially in an enterprise context, the need for a transitionary period is critical and that’s what we are seeing today.

The Rise of Pure-Play IRM

Continuing relationships with those tracking the IRM trend, we are incredibly excited to speak with our leading research partners and innovative security leaders at the Security and Risk Summit. Sitting at the intersection of facilitating the shift to integrated risk management as well as building for the needs of a truly integrated risk and compliance program, the CyberSaint team is excited to show what we believe to be one of the first pure-play integrated risk management solutions available today. Having recognized that we are in a transitionary period, we look forward to showing attendees CyberStrong’s ability to both embrace the shift to IRM as well as scale a truly integrated cybersecurity program.