Ward Balcerzak

The evolving digital landscape for cloud-first companies presents unprecedented challenges for chief information security officers (CISOs). The rapid adoption of AI-powered systems and the explosive growth of cloud-based deployments have expanded the attack surface, introducing novel risks and threats.

According to IBM's 2024 "Cost of a Data Breach Report," the average cost of a cloud data breach soared to $4.88 million - prompting a crucial question: Is your organization prepared to secure its expanding digital footprint? 

Regulatory frameworks and data privacy standards are in a constant state of flux, requiring CISOs to stay agile and proactive in their approach to compliance and risk management.

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This article explores the top challenges facing CISOs today, illustrated by real-world incidents, and offers actionable solutions for them. By understanding these pressing concerns, organizations can stay proactive and secure their environments effectively.

Top Modern Challenges Faced by CISOs

Modern CISO concerns stem from a combination of technical complexity, workforce behavior, and external threats. Below, we explore these challenges in detail.

1. AI and Large Language Model (LLM) Data Protection Challenges

AI tools like large language models (LLMs) have become integral to modern organizations; however, they have also introduced significant risks to data security. In 2024, for example, Microsoft's AI system, Copilot, was manipulated to exfiltrate private data and automate spear-phishing attacks, revealing vulnerabilities in AI-powered systems.

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Furthermore, insider threats have increased as employees misuse AI tools to leak sensitive data. For instance, the AI malware Imprompter exploited LLMs to facilitate data exfiltration, causing data loss and reputational harm. 

Robust governance frameworks that restrict unauthorized AI system access and implementation of real-time activity monitoring are essential to mitigate such risks.

2. Unstructured Data Management

Unstructured data (e.g., text, images, audio, and video files) is increasingly stored across cloud platforms, making it difficult to secure. Take the high-profile breach in 2022 involving Turkish Pegasus Airlines. It compromised 6.5 TB of unstructured data stored in an AWS S3 bucket, ultimately leading to 23 million files being exposed. 

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This incident highlighted the dangers of poorly managed unstructured data, which can lead to severe reputational damage and potential regulatory penalties. Addressing this challenge requires automated classification and encryption tools to secure data at scale. In addition, real-time classification and encryption ensure sensitive information remains protected in diverse, dynamic environments.

3. Encryption and Data Labeling

Encryption and data labeling are vital for protecting sensitive information, yet many organizations struggle to implement them effectively. 

IBM's 2024 “Cost of a Data Breach Report” reveals that companies that have implemented security AI and automation “extensively” have saved an average of $2.2 million compared to those without these technologies.

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) highlights the importance of data labeling and classification, requiring organizations to handle personal data appropriately based on its sensitivity. These measures are essential for protecting sensitive information and complying with all relevant data protection regulations.

Companies can enforce data protection policies more effectively by adopting dynamic encryption technologies and leveraging platforms that support automated labeling.

4. Regulatory Compliance and Global Standards

The expanding intricacies of data privacy regulations, such as GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA, pose significant challenges for CISOs. In 2024, Microsoft and Google faced lawsuits for the unauthorized use of personal data in AI training, underscoring the financial and reputational risks of non-compliance.

Companies must leverage compliance automation tools and centralized management systems to navigate these complexities and streamline regulatory adherence.

5. Explosive Data Growth

The exponential growth of data creates immense opportunities but also heightens security risks. 

As organizations generate and store more data, legacy security measures often fall short, exposing critical vulnerabilities. Advanced, cloud-native, and scalable platforms help organizations scale their data protection strategies alongside data growth, offering real-time monitoring and automated controls to mitigate risks effectively.

6. Insider Threats

Both intentional and accidental insider threats remain among the most difficult challenges for CISOs to address. 

In 2024, a North Korean IT worker, hired unknowingly by an American company, stole sensitive data and demanded a cryptocurrency ransom. This incident exposed vulnerabilities in remote hiring processes, resulting in severe operational and reputational consequences. 

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Combatting insider threats requires sophisticated behavior analytics and activity monitoring tools to detect and respond to anomalies early. Security platforms should provide enhanced visibility into user activity, enabling organizations to mitigate such risks and secure their data proactively.

7. Shadow Data

In the race to adopt new cloud and AI-powered tools, users are often generating, storing, and transmitting sensitive data in services that the security team never approved or even knew existed. This includes everything from unofficial file-sharing apps to unsanctioned SaaS platforms and ad hoc API integrations.

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The result is shadow IT, shadow SaaS, and ultimately, shadow data: sensitive or regulated information that lives outside the visibility of traditional security tools. Without knowing where this data resides or how it’s being accessed, CISOs cannot protect it. These unknown data flows introduce real compliance, privacy, and security risk.

It is critical to expose and classify this hidden data in real time, in order to give security teams the visibility they need to secure what was previously invisible.

Overcoming the Challenges: A CISO's Playbook in 6 Steps

CISOs can follow a structured, data-driven, step-by-step playbook to navigate the hurdles of modern cybersecurity and data protection. However, in today's dynamic data landscape, simply checking off boxes is no longer sufficient—leaders must understand how each critical data security measure interconnects, creating a unified, forward-thinking strategy.

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Before diving into these steps, it's important to note why they matter now more than ever: Emerging data technologies, rapidly evolving data regulations, and escalating insider threats demand an adaptable, holistic, and data-centric approach to security. By integrating these core elements with robust data analytics, CISOs can build an ecosystem that addresses current vulnerabilities and anticipates future data risks.

1. First, Develop a Scalable Security Strategy 

A strategic security roadmap should integrate seamlessly with organizational goals and data governance frameworks, guaranteeing that risk management, data integrity, and business priorities align. 

Accurately classifying and continuously monitoring data assets, even as they move throughout the organization, is a must to achieve sustainable scale. This solid data foundation empowers organizations to quickly pivot in response to emerging threats, keeping them agile and resilient.

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The next step is key, as the right mindset is a must.

2. Build a Security-First Culture

Equip employees with the knowledge and tools to secure data effectively; regular data-focused training sessions and awareness initiatives help reduce human error and mitigate insider threats before they become critical risks. By fostering a culture of shared data responsibility, CISOs transform every team member into a first line of defense. 

This approach ensures that everyone is on the same page toward prioritizing data security. 

3. Leverage Advanced Tools and Automation

Utilize state-of-the-art platforms for comprehensive data discovery, real-time monitoring, automation, and visibility. By automating routine security tasks and delivering instant data-driven insights, these features empower CISOs to stay on top of new threats and make decisions based on the latest data. 

Naturally, even the best tools and automation require a strategic, data-centric approach to yield optimal results.

4. Implement Zero-Trust Principles 

Implement a zero-trust approach that verifies every user, device, and data transaction, ensuring zero implicit trust within the environment. Understand who has access to what data, and implement least privilege access. Continuous identity and device validation boosts security for both external and internal threats. 

Positioning zero trust as a core principle tightens data access controls across the entire ecosystem, but organizations must remain vigilant to the most recent threats.

5. Evaluate and Update Cybersecurity Frameworks

Regularly assess security policies, procedures, and data management tools to ensure alignment with the latest trends and regulatory requirements. Keep a current data inventory, and monitor all changes. Ongoing reviews maintain relevance and effectiveness, preventing outdated defenses from becoming liabilities.

For optimal data security, cross-functional collaboration is key.

6. Encourage Cross-Departmental Collaboration

Work closely with other teams, including IT, legal, compliance, and data governance, to ensure a unified and practical approach to data security challenges. Cooperation among stakeholders accelerates decision-making, streamlines incident response, and underscores the importance of security as a shared enterprise objective.

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By adopting this data-centric playbook, CISOs can strengthen their organization's security posture, respond to threats quickly, and reduce the likelihood and impact of breaches. Platforms such as Sentra provide robust, data-driven tools and capabilities to execute this strategy effectively, enabling CISOs to confidently handle complex cybersecurity landscapes.  When these steps intertwine, the result is a robust defense that adapts to the ever-shifting digital landscape - empowering leaders to stay one step ahead.

The Sentra Edge

Sentra is an advanced data security platform that offers the strategic insights and automated capabilities modern CISOs need to navigate evolving threats without compromising agility or compliance. Sentra integrates seamlessly with existing processes, empowering security leaders to build holistic programs that anticipate new risks, reinforce best practices, and protect data in real time.

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Below are several key areas where Sentra's approach aligns with the thought leadership necessary to stay ahead of modern cybersecurity challenges.

Secure Structured Data

Structured data - in tables, databases, and other organized repositories, forms the backbone of an organization’s critical assets. At Sentra, we prioritize structured data management first and foremost, ensuring automation drives our security strategy. While securing structured data might seem straightforward, rapid data proliferation can quickly overwhelm manual safeguards, exposing your data. By automating data movement tracking, continuous risk and security posture assessments, and real-time alerts for policy violations, organizations can offload these burdensome yet essential tasks. 

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This automation-first approach not only strengthens data security but also ensures compliance and operational efficiency in today’s fast-paced digital landscape.

Secure Unstructured Data

Securing text, images, video, and other unstructured data is often challenging in cloud environments. Unstructured data is particularly vulnerable when organizations lack automated classification and encryption, creating blind spots that bad actors can exploit.

In response, Sentra underscores the importance of continuous data discovery, labeling, and protection—enabling CISOs to maintain visibility over their dynamic cloud assets and reduce the risk of inadvertent exposure.

Navigate Complex Regulations

Modern data protection laws, such as GDPR and CCPA, demand rigorous compliance structures that can strain security teams. Sentra's approach highlights centralized governance and real-time reporting, helping CISOs align with ever-shifting global standards.

By automating repetitive compliance tasks, organizations can focus more energy on strategic security initiatives, ensuring they remain nimble even as regulations evolve.

Tackle Insider Threats

Insider threats—accidental and malicious—remain one of the most challenging hurdles for CISOs. Sentra advocates a multi-layered strategy that combines behavior analytics, anomaly detection, and dynamic data labeling; this offers proactive visibility into user actions, enabling security leaders to detect and neutralize insider risks early. 

Such a holistic posture helps mitigate breaches before they escalate and preserves organizational trust.

Be Prepared for Future Risks

AI-driven attacks and large language model (LLM) vulnerabilities are no longer theoretical—they are rapidly emerging threats that demand forward-thinking responses. Sentra's focus on robust data control mechanisms and continuous monitoring means CISOs have the tools they need to safeguard sensitive information, whether it's accessed by human users or AI systems. 

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This outlook helps security teams adapt quickly to the next wave of challenges. By emphasizing strategic insights, proactive measures, and ongoing adaptation, Sentra exemplifies an industry-leading approach that empowers CISOs to navigate complex data security landscapes without losing sight of broader organizational objectives.

Conclusion

As new threat vectors emerge and organizations face mounting pressures to protect their data, the role of CISO will become even more critical. Addressing modern challenges requires a proactive and strategic approach, incorporating robust security frameworks, cutting-edge tools, and a culture of vigilance.

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Sentra's platform is a comprehensive data security solution designed to empower CISOs with the tools they need to navigate this complex landscape. By addressing key hurdles such as AI risks, structured and unstructured data management, and compliance, Sentra enables companies to stay on top of evolving risks and safeguard their operations. The modern CISO role is more demanding than ever, but the right tools make all the difference. Discover how Sentra's cloud-native approach empowers you to conquer pressing security challenges.

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As we move deeper into 2025, the cybersecurity landscape is experiencing a profound shift. AI-driven threats are becoming more sophisticated, cloud misconfigurations remain a persistent risk, and data breaches continue to grow in scale and cost.

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In this rapidly evolving environment, traditional security approaches are no longer enough. At Black Hat USA 2025, Sentra will demonstrate how security teams can stay ahead of the curve through data-centric strategies that focus on visibility, risk reduction, and real-time response. Join us on August 4-8 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas to learn how Sentra’s platform is reshaping the future of cloud data security.

Understanding the Stakes: 2024’s Security Trends

Recent industry data underscores the urgency facing security leaders. Ransomware accounted for 35% of all cyberattacks in 2024 - an 84% increase over the prior year. Misconfigurations continue to be a leading cause of cloud incidents, contributing to nearly a quarter of security events. Phishing remains the most common vector for credential theft, and the use of AI by attackers has moved from experimental to mainstream.

These trends point to a critical shift: attackers are no longer just targeting infrastructure or endpoints. They are going straight for the data.

Why Data-Centric Security Must Be the Focus in 2025

The acceleration of multi-cloud adoption has introduced significant complexity. Sensitive data now resides across AWS, Azure, GCP, and SaaS platforms like Snowflake and Databricks. However, most organizations still struggle with foundational visibility - not knowing where all their sensitive data lives, who has access to it, or how it is being used.

Sentra’s approach to Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) is built to solve this problem. Our platform enables security teams to continuously discover, identify, classify, and secure sensitive data across their cloud environments, and to do so in real time, without agents or manual tagging.

Sentra at Black Hat USA 2025: What to Expect

At this year’s conference, Sentra will be showcasing how our DSPM and Data Detection and Response (DDR) capabilities help organizations proactively defend their data against evolving threats. Our live demonstrations will highlight how we uncover shadow data across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, detect abnormal access patterns indicating insider threats, and automate compliance mapping for frameworks such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and SOX. Attendees will also gain visibility into how our platform enables data-aware threat detection that goes beyond traditional SIEM tools.

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In addition to product walkthroughs, we’ll be sharing real-world success stories from our customers - including a fintech company that reduced its cloud data risk by 60% in under a month, and a global healthtech provider that cut its audit prep time from three weeks to just two days using Sentra’s automated controls.

Exclusive Experiences for Security Leaders

Beyond the show floor, Sentra will be hosting a VIP Security Leaders Dinner on August 5 - an invitation-only evening of strategic conversations with CISOs, security architects, and data governance leaders. The event will feature roundtable discussions on 2025’s biggest cloud data security challenges and emerging best practices.

For those looking for deeper engagement, we’re also offering one-on-one strategy sessions with our experts. These personalized consultations will focus on helping security leaders evaluate their current DSPM posture, identify key areas of risk, and map out a tailored approach to implementing Sentra’s platform within their environment.

Why Security Teams Choose Sentra

Sentra has emerged as a trusted partner for organizations tackling the challenges of modern data security. We were named a "Customers’ Choice" in the Gartner Peer Insights Voice of the Customer report for DSPM, with a 98% recommendation rate and an average rating of 4.9 out of 5. GigaOm also recognized Sentra as a Leader in its 2024 Radar reports for both DSPM and Data Security Platforms.

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More importantly, Sentra is helping real organizations address the realities of cloud-native risk. As security perimeters dissolve and sensitive data becomes more distributed, our platform provides the context, automation, and visibility needed to protect it.

Meet Sentra at Booth 4408

Black Hat USA 2025 offers a critical opportunity for security leaders to re-evaluate their strategies in the face of AI-powered attacks, rising cloud complexity, and increasing regulatory pressure. Whether you are just starting to explore DSPM or are looking to enhance your existing security investments, Sentra’s team will be available for live demos, expert guidance, and strategic insights throughout the event.

Visit us at Booth 4408 to see firsthand how Sentra can help your organization secure what matters most - your data.

Register or Book a Session

• Request an invite to our VIP Dinner (August 5)
• Schedule a private strategy session with our experts

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After nearly two decades immersed in cybersecurity, spanning Fortune 500 enterprises, defense contractors, manufacturing giants, consulting, and the vendor ecosystem, I’ve seen firsthand how elusive true data security remains. I've built and led data security programs from scratch in some of the world’s most demanding environments. But when I met the team from Sentra, something clicked in a way that’s rare in this industry.

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Let me tell you why I joined Sentra and why I’m more excited than ever about the future of data security.

From Visibility to Vulnerability

In every role I've held, one challenge has consistently stood out: understanding data.
Not just securing it but truly knowing what data we have, where it lives, how it moves, how it's used, and who touches it. This sounds basic, yet it’s one of the least addressed problems in security.

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Now, we layer on the proliferation of cloud environments and SaaS sprawl (without mentioning the increasing proliferation of AI agents). The traditional approaches simply don’t cut it. Most organizations either ignore cloud data discovery altogether or lean on point solutions that can’t scale, lack depth, or require endless manual tuning and triage.

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That’s exactly where Sentra shines.

Why Sentra?

When I first engaged with Sentra, what struck me was that this wasn’t another vendor trying to slap a new UI on an old problem. Sentra understands the problem deeply and is solving it holistically across all environments. They’re not just keeping up; they’re setting the pace.

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The AI-powered data classification engine at the heart of Sentra’s platform is, quite frankly, the best I’ve seen in the market. It automates what previously required a small army of analysts and does so with an accuracy and scale that’s unmatched. It's not just smart, it’s operationally scalable.

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But technology alone wasn’t what sold me. It was the people.
The Sentra founders are visionaries who live and breathe this space. They’re not building in a vacuum, they’re listening to customers, responding to real-world friction, and delivering solutions that security teams will actually adopt. That’s rare. That’s powerful.

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And finally, there’s the culture. Sentra radiates innovation, agility, and relentless focus on impact. Every person here knows the importance of their role and how it aligns with our mission. That energy is infectious and it’s exactly where I want to be.

Two Decades. One Mission: Secure the Data.

At Sentra, I’m bringing the scars, stories, and successes from almost 20 years “in the trenches”:

• Deep experience building and maturing data security programs within highly regulated, high-stakes environments
  
  
• A commitment to the full people-process-technology stack, because securing data isn’t just about tools
  
  
• A background stitching together integrated solutions across silos and toolsets
  
  
• A unique perspective shaped by my time as a practitioner, leader, consultant, and vendor
  
  

This blend helps me speak the language of security teams, empathize with their challenges, and design strategies that actually work.

Looking Ahead

Joining Sentra isn’t just the next step in my career; it’s a chance to help lead the next chapter of data security. We’re not here to incrementally improve what exists. We’re here to rethink it. Redefine it. Solve it.

If you’re passionate about protecting what matters most, your data. I’d love to connect.

This is more than a job; it’s a mission. And I couldn’t be prouder to be part of it.

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