False Promises, Real Money: How Big Cyber Plays the CISO Game
big cybersecurity profit over protection
False Promises, Real Money: How Big Cyber Plays the CISO Game
In today’s fast-evolving digital world, many organizations look to large cybersecurity companies to protect their most valuable data and assets. With their big names, resources, and extensive reach, it’s easy to assume that these companies provide the most reliable defense. However, a closer look reveals a different story: big cybersecurity companies often prioritize profit over protection. Rather than delivering solutions that truly safeguard against cyber threats, these companies rely on fear-based marketing, compliance-driven sales tactics, and redundant tools to keep customers dependent. For Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), this reality is both frustrating and risky. They’re paying top dollar for solutions that barely scratch the surface of what’s needed to keep organizations genuinely secure.
Many of these industry giants have perfected the art of selling security but have largely abandoned true innovation. From outdated technology disguised as “new solutions” to tools that flood security teams with endless alerts, large cybersecurity providers are more focused on maintaining steady revenue streams than on delivering real results. They exploit CISOs’ need for robust, reliable protection by pushing products that meet only the bare minimum requirements, all while adding expensive “features” that do little to improve overall security.
In this blog, we’ll explore the top ways big cybersecurity companies prioritize profit over protection and why it’s time for CISOs to look beyond the big names for solutions that genuinely protect against modern cyber threats.
The Compliance Lie: How Big Cyber Uses Fear to Fuel Sales
When it comes to cyber threats, “compliance” is a term that dominates conversations. Large organizations often spend millions to meet standards like GDPR, CCPA, or HIPAA, assuming that these certifications will protect them against security risks. However, the reality is that compliance doesn’t equal security—it’s merely a baseline requirement, a starting point rather than a comprehensive defense. Large cybersecurity companies are well aware of this, yet they cleverly use compliance as a sales tool, creating packages that meet these minimum standards while implying that compliance alone will shield organizations from cyber threats.
By marketing compliance-focused solutions, big cybersecurity companies create an illusion that merely checking regulatory boxes equates to effective cybersecurity training and threat protection. In reality, this approach distracts from true security priorities, encouraging companies to invest in tools that might satisfy auditors but do little to protect against evolving cyber threats. This tactic not only misleads CISOs but also inflates budgets with features that offer minimal real-world value.
The focus shouldn’t be on achieving a compliance label, but on proactive defenses like phishing protection and phishing simulation tools that can adapt as threats become more sophisticated. Compliance standards don’t account for the specific tactics cybercriminals use, nor do they evolve fast enough to address the dynamic nature of modern attacks. Rather than pouring resources into compliance-driven products, organizations should invest in solutions that genuinely fortify their defenses, prioritize real-world threat training, and enable employees to detect and respond to attacks as they occur.
Alert Overload: When More Isn’t Better
Big cybersecurity companies love to boast about their extensive alerting capabilities, promoting them as a sign of heightened security. For them, the sheer volume of alerts translates to visibility and activity, which they equate with better protection. However, anyone working in a Security Operations Center (SOC) knows that more alerts don’t automatically mean more security. In reality, overwhelming SOC teams with hundreds or even thousands of alerts can have a dangerous impact.
When every minor activity is flagged as a potential threat, analysts face what’s called “alert fatigue.” Drowning in alerts makes it incredibly challenging to distinguish genuine cyber threats from harmless activity. This constant barrage wears down even the best-trained analysts, increasing the chance that real, high-priority threats will slip through unnoticed. Alert fatigue not only hampers response times but also raises the risk of missing critical vulnerabilities altogether.
Large cybersecurity companies are aware of these challenges but often choose not to address them with smarter alert filtering or prioritization. They see value in selling an “all-inclusive” package that looks impressive on paper, rather than developing tools that intelligently sift out the noise. Unfortunately, this approach prioritizes profits over effective phishing protection and threat detection.
Instead of flooding SOCs with irrelevant alerts, cybersecurity solutions should focus on quality over quantity. Filtering out false positives, prioritizing high-impact threats, and providing clear, actionable information would offer far greater value. But big companies shy away from these innovations because they lack the marketing appeal of big numbers, making it easier for them to maintain the illusion of comprehensive security rather than delivering real protection.
Old Tools, New Labels: The Illusion of Innovation in Cybersecurity
In the realm of phishing protection and cybersecurity training, big companies are notorious for recycling outdated technology and presenting it as “new.” Rather than genuinely innovating to meet today’s complex cyber threats, they slap a fresh label—often adding “AI” to make it sound cutting-edge—on the same old tools. But here’s the problem: just because you add “AI” to an old toolset and make it happen faster doesn’t mean you’ve actually innovated anything new. If what you were doing before was ineffective, it’s still ineffective—just faster.
Many companies rely on rules-based systems that may have worked years ago but are now outmatched by advanced attacks. Machine-learning models that could genuinely detect sophisticated threats are often sidelined for systems that are easier and cheaper to sell. This results in flashy products that look impressive on the surface but offer little in terms of actual security improvement.
Pricing strategies reflect this lack of innovation, too. Large companies use a “fear-based” approach, pushing costly add-ons that exploit CISOs’ concerns over non-compliance or potential breaches. These so-called “must-have” features rarely add meaningful value but are packaged as essential, creating a cycle where CISOs feel compelled to spend on tools they may not even need. Instead of promoting balanced strategies that address real cyber threats, they capitalize on anxiety, reinforcing the illusion that more features equate to better protection.
Ultimately, this profit-driven model leaves CISOs questioning why their security tools fail to deliver promised results. With each contract, they find themselves trapped in a cycle, paying for tools that look powerful on paper but struggle to offer real-world protection.
Ignoring Smaller Businesses in Favor of High-Paying Clients
Most large cybersecurity firms design their products and services for the enterprise market. Smaller companies, which face equal if not greater exposure to cyber threats, often find themselves priced out or underserved. Big companies chase high-paying clients while leaving small businesses with generic, scaled-down versions of enterprise products. These solutions often lack the flexibility or customization smaller organizations need, creating a gap in protection that attackers are more than willing to exploit.
Small companies don’t have the luxury of extensive security budgets, and large cybersecurity firms take full advantage of that fact, offering limited support or pushing smaller organizations toward entry-level products with minimal phishing protection capabilities.
Data Hoarding Without Providing True Insights
A troubling trend among large cybersecurity companies is their obsession with data hoarding, often with little effort to turn that data into actionable intelligence. These companies commonly bundle data storage as part of their security packages, selling it as a valuable feature. But data, without meaningful analysis, is just data. It doesn’t protect against cyber threats or improve security. While they sit on massive troves of information that could reveal critical threat patterns, large firms rarely convert this information into practical insights that CISOs can actually use.
Instead, they charge a premium for data storage, creating an illusion of security without delivering tangible value. CISOs are left with a false sense of protection, unaware that the data sitting in these storage systems could be leveraged to drive better cybersecurity training and more effective phishing simulation tools. But too often, these insights remain untapped, as large companies focus on selling storage rather than enhancing security strategies.
Smaller, agile cybersecurity firms take a different approach. They excel in transforming data into intelligence that informs real defense strategies. By analyzing data for trends, they provide organizations with insights that actively help in threat detection and prevention. This focused approach gives CISOs the tools they need to address cyber threats head-on, rather than relying on empty promises of “more data equals more security.”
Lacking Real Investment in User Education
Cybersecurity awareness shouldn’t end with a box checked in compliance. User education is crucial to building a strong defense against phishing attacks and other cyber threats. However, the reality is that many large cybersecurity companies provide outdated and overly generic training materials. These standardized approaches don’t account for the unique threats faced by different industries or the specific needs of each organization’s workforce.
Without effective, context-aware training, employees remain unprepared for real-world threats, and CISOs are left frustrated with tools that don’t make their organizations any safer. The truth is, large cybersecurity firms don’t want to empower employees too much—they’d rather keep them dependent on high-priced tools than make them genuinely capable defenders of their own security.
Why Smaller, Focused Firms Can Offer Better Value
For many organizations, the answer to these challenges lies with smaller, more specialized firms that prioritize real security over profit margins. These companies understand that effective cybersecurity isn’t about flooding clients with products they don’t need or data they can’t analyze. Instead, they focus on providing tailored phishing protection, adaptive cybersecurity training, and smarter phishing simulation tools that genuinely empower organizations to protect themselves.
Small firms take a people-focused approach, prioritizing user education and streamlined alert systems that reduce the burden on SOC teams. Rather than relying on outdated compliance packages, they innovate, developing solutions that adapt to today’s ever-evolving threat landscape. This people-first mindset helps to bridge the gap left by big cybersecurity companies that are more focused on maintaining their profit margins than on addressing the real challenges CISOs face.
Choosing a Cybersecurity Partner with a Vision Beyond Profit
