Arctic Wolf CEO: 'AI is an opportunity for vendors and customers, but also bad actors'

Nick Schneider opens up about the opportunities and challenges facing the cybersecurity market

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a big opportunity for all actors in the cybersecurity market, including those the market is trying to defend itself against, says Nick Schneider, CEO at Arctic Wolf.

"There's a healthy dose of intrigue into how AI can change the cybersecurity landscape and it's certainly an area that we're paying attention to and making investment in," he told CRN.

"And there's a multitude of different opportunities there with regards to the way in which you manage or operate a security operation and that will be balanced against the opportunities that the bad actors will also have through AI."

Schneider admits that for the channel AI will be both an opportunity and a challenge, but also reflects: "It is a big wave of opportunity, much like the cloud and other major waves of opportunity that have happened within technology over the last 20 years.

"But I also think it's important to keep in mind that the day ChatGPT was released was not the day AI was introduced to the world."

He explains how AI has been used in cybersecurity for years and therefore the current uptake is "really just an increased awareness the opportunities it presents".

An ever growing market

Reports published earlier this year by IDC found that worldwide security spending is set to grow by 12.1 per cent to reach $219bn in 2023.

The market watcher's Worldwide Security Spending Guide claimed investments in hardware, software, and services related to cybersecurity are expected to reach nearly $300bn in 2026.

And Schneider echoes this view.

"Cybersecurity is top of mind for everyone, it has been and will continue to be.

"Cybersecurity is given the highest growth with regards to budgets.

"I think cybersecurity is probably the least likely to be cut in the event that there's a budget cut that needs to take place.

"So cyber is in a really unique position."

But he also acknowledges that it is not immune to a macroeconomic environment.

"There are other aspects, even if you're giving top priority cybersecurity that you might not be growing as fast, or you might have a smaller workforce than you had the year before."

Nevertheless, he believes the market is still in the early innings, especially within the channel community.

UK market opportunities

Schneider speaks about the opportunity for channel partner to take advantage of this growth spurt of cybersecurity to "understand how to build out a cybersecurity portfolio".

"And I think for that to happen, you have to have a cornerstone of that programme that affords them the ability to get a seat at the table with a C-level and understand kind of what their overall security posture looks like and what their overall security programme looks like.

"From the customer side, It's really about decluttering the noise, we talked to customers, or prospect customers, on a daily basis that have invested in 50/60/70 different cybersecurity tools and they just don't know how they all play together anymore," he tells CRN.

"Simplifying the way in which a customer attacks the problem, leveraging an entity like Arctic Wolf in conjunction with a really strong, trusted local partner, has been a winning formula for a lot of our customers."

Challenges still ahead

Schneider admits that there are still challenges that the sector needs to reckon with. His primary example is a really complex environment.

He explains how "bad actors" are becoming more sophisticated and organised.

"Every day there's something new to pay attention to. And that's difficult for a lot of customers, channel partners, and vendors, to make sure that they're staying on top of it.

He says that the talent shortage, while being "no secret" is still a very prominent issue in the sector.

And while, it's already difficult to recruit for jobs in cybersecurity, reports earlier this year also found that a quarter of cybersecurity leaders are predicted to leave the sector by 2025.

"There are far more cybersecurity job openings than there are cybersecurity professionals.

"So, if you if you don't have the talent to manage the tools or understand the complexity, you really need to find a partner to ensure that you're safe and that you're protected.

"And that's really what we do. We provide kind of the platform for security operations, the outcomes that a security operation would deliver.

"And we do so in a way that is very channel-friendly so that we can meet with the customer in the middle and then the channel partner can help us to ensure that relationship is surrounded by not only what we do, but other cybersecurity initiatives and services and then other products that create the customer's overall security posture."