COMMENTARY: Organizations are increasingly prioritizing data protection and data trust as vital in shaping their cybersecurity investments, according to
our 2025 Global Digital Trust Insights report (DTI).
As cyber threats continue to escalate, business and tech leaders are doubling down on cybersecurity investments to protect sensitive data, build resilience, and ultimately, maintain stakeholder trust.
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Over the next year, data protection and cloud security are emerging as critical areas of focus for organizations, reflecting the continued role cybersecurity plays within a company.
Recent insights reveal that 48% of business executives are prioritizing data protection and data trust as their leading cybersecurity investment areas. For tech executives — CIOs, CTOs, and
CISOs — cloud security remains the top priority (34%), which highlights the continued focus on the cloud being the major source of cyber risk. The cloud was followed closely by data protection and trust (28%).
Organizations are strategically prioritizing data protection, because of a combination of regulatory pressures, consumer expectations, and the financial impact of data breaches. These forces drive a business imperative to safeguard sensitive data and align this with business goals and across organizational stakeholders.
Regulatory pressures grow
Governments and industry bodies worldwide are introducing stringent regulations, such as the EU AI Act, the
Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), and the Cyber Resilience Act, to foster stronger cybersecurity and data privacy protections.
Ninety-six percent of global executives report increased cyber investments to comply with regulations, and interestingly enough in today's anti-regulatory climate in the U.S., 78% say regulations improved the company's cybersecurity posture because it pushed their organizations to adopt a stronger cyber
program.
Despite this progress, a disconnect still exists between CEOs and CISOs regarding making ongoing cyber risk management and resilience a priority, especially in an age of increasing use of more sophisticated technology, such as AI.
Increased consumer demands for privacy
Organizations increasingly recognize that a strong cybersecurity posture isn’t just about mitigating risks — it’s about building trust. More than half of executives (57%) cite customer trust as an important outcome of cybersecurity investments, while 49% emphasize its role in enhancing brand integrity and loyalty.
In an era where trust has become paramount, companies that prioritize an individual’s choices and control over how their data gets used and shared can stand out as leaders, enhancing their brand and providing a potential competitive advantage. Confidence in how an organization secures their data and transparency around that can drive greater consumer engagement.
The rising cost of data breaches
Executives reported in our DTI that the global average cost of a data breach exceeds $3 million, with the average estimated at $3.32 million. Over one-quarter of executives reported that their most damaging data breach in the past three years cost their organization at least $1 million.
Beyond financial losses, breaches can lead to regulatory fines, legal liabilities including potential downstream impacts to third-party partners and overall reputational damage. Proactively managing potential vulnerabilities across the ecosystem can help reduce the increasing chance of and costs related to a cyber incident.
Despite continued large-scale breaches and increasing awareness of the nature and variety of breaches that may occur, many organizations still remain underprepared.
Moving forward, CIOs, CTOs, and CISOs must collaborate with CFOs to translate the value of cybersecurity investments into measurable outcomes — such as reducing the time to recover mission-critical data, avoiding potential costly data breaches or regulatory sanctions and increasing the accountability to which third-party partners are held.
For CFOs, understanding the business value of data protection and cloud security has become essential to making informed investment decisions that support the businesses need for more data in a way that best minimizes risk.
By investing strategically in data protection and cloud security, organizations are defending against threats and helping to position themselves as trustworthy and reliable. When companies think of cybersecurity as a differentiator, they put the business in a better position to thrive in an increasingly complex digital landscape.
Jacky Wagner, principal, cyber, risk, and regulatory practice, PwCSC Media Perspectives columns are written by a trusted community of SC Media cybersecurity subject matter experts. Each contribution has a goal of bringing a unique voice to important cybersecurity topics. Content strives to be of the highest quality, objective and non-commercial.
