Securing a return from your cyber security budget

Organisations across all industries are increasing their cyber security budgets, but despite this higher investment, many still face frequent incidents, slow recoveries, and stalled transformation programs. The real issue is not how much is spent, but how effectively the funding is applied to reduce risk and strengthen business performance.

Budget growth without performance gains

A global BDO-sponsored survey from the International Data Corporation (IDC) highlights a clear disconnect. Nearly half of the organisations surveyed reported having flexible cyber security budgets, but they still experience an average of more than five incidents per year, highlighting that having sufficient budget alone does not guarantee resilience.

With cyber threats growing in frequency and sophistication, Australian organisations are dedicating larger cyber security budgets to tackle the growing risk landscape. Despite this investment, many still face frequent incidents, delayed recoveries, and stalled transformation efforts. Those that align spending with operational readiness, process maturity, and transformation goals consistently report stronger outcomes than those who treat cyber security as a reactive cost centre, with those in the second group often struggling to translate investment into measurable impact.

Tips to maximise the impact of your cyber security budget

To make every cyber security investment count, organisations must adopt a performance-driven approach. This means moving beyond reactive spending and focusing on strategic execution.

Here are five key strategies to help maximise the value of your cyber security investments:

1. Prioritise risk-based investments

Effective budgeting begins with understanding your organisation’s unique risk landscape. Identify the most critical threats, such as ransomware, insider threats, or supply chain vulnerabilities, and allocate resources to address them first. Risk assessments should guide investment decisions, ensuring that funds are directed toward areas with the highest potential impact.

The IDC report found that organisations with proactive risk modeling and governance frameworks experience fewer disruptions and faster recoveries. Prioritising risk-based investments helps ensure that cyber security spending is aligned with business priorities.

In Australia, this means aligning investment with:

• Enterprise risk frameworks - ensuring cyber security priorities are integrated into overall organisational risk management rather than treated in isolation
• Business-critical assets and services - directing resources to protect the data, systems, and processes that matter most for operational continuity and customer trust
• Regular reassessment of risk exposure - reviewing emerging threats and updating investment priorities to keep pace with changes in technology, regulation, and the threat landscape.

2. Invest in operational readiness

Budget effectiveness is closely tied to operational maturity. Organisations with 24x7 threat monitoring and response capabilities detect and contain threats more quickly, reducing dwell time and limiting damage. These capabilities provide the visibility and agility needed to respond to evolving threats in real time.

Key areas for strategic investment include:

• Continuous monitoring (internal or outsourced)
• Automated threat detection and response
• Endpoint protection for hybrid workforces
• Incident response playbooks and tabletop exercises.

Organisations with optimised detection and investigation processes, often supported by AI and extended detection and response (XDR) tools, generally report significantly fewer incidents and faster recovery times.

3. Rationalise the tech stack

The uncontrolled growth of security tools is a common challenge that leads to complexity, inefficiency, and wasted spend. Many organisations add overlapping tools over time, creating integration issues and driving up operational overhead.

Consolidating and simplifying the tech stack improves visibility, lowers costs, and increases overall effectiveness. Organisations should look for platforms that offer:

• Unified visibility across endpoints, networks, and cloud assets
• Automation and orchestration capabilities
• Seamless integration with existing infrastructure.

Simpler solutions also reduce the chance of misconfigurations and enable faster response times, which is critical for sectors such as healthcare, energy, and financial services.

4. Build strategic capabilities in-house

While outsourcing can offer scale and efficiency, certain capabilities are best developed internally. These include governance, risk modeling, and employee awareness programmes. Building these capabilities in-house ensures that cyber security is embedded into the organisation’s culture and decision-making processes.

Focus areas for Australian organisations include:

• Cyber security training and awareness programmes
• Governance, risk, and compliance integration
• GenAI risk management frameworks.

As GenAI adoption grows, organisations must address new risks such as phishing, data leakage, and governance gaps. Investing in employee training and AI-specific security controls is essential to mitigate these emerging threats.

5. Measure leading indicators, not just outcomes

Boards and executives increasingly expect cyber security programs to demonstrate tangible performance outcomes. While metrics like incident frequency and cost savings are important, they don’t tell the full story.

The following leading indicators provide deeper insights into operational readiness:

• Time to detect and respond
• Patching rates and vulnerability management
• Training effectiveness and user adoption of secure practices.

Without visibility into internal processes, organisations may overestimate their resilience. Measuring leading indicators helps identify gaps early and supports continuous improvement.

Future-proofing your budget strategy

Cyber security budgeting must become more strategic, with organisations shifting toward models that link funding to measurable improvements in risk reduction, recovery speed, and transformation success. To stay effective, budgets should be reassessed regularly and aligned with evolving threats and business priorities.

The IDC report highlights three key areas of focus for future-proofing investment:

• Increased automation through AI and machine learning
• Targeted mitigation strategies for GenAI-related risks
• Stronger governance around third-party risk, which is often underfunded, despite its role in many breaches.

When cyber security investments are tied to clear outcomes and business goals, they become a driver of resilience, innovation, and long-term growth.

How BDO can help

This Cyber Awareness Month, take the next step in turning your cyber security investment into measurable performance.

BDO’s cyber security team works with organisations to align spend with business priorities, design scalable and secure architectures, and implement risk-based controls that deliver real impact. Whether you're refining your strategy, modernising infrastructure, or responding to evolving threats, partner with BDO to maximise value, strengthen resilience, and demonstrate return on your cyber security investment.