How to Solve Your Cybersecurity Tech Debt
Cybersec Café #57 - 03/04/25
Buying more tools won’t magically fix your problems.
Hiring a bigger team won’t suddenly make your issues go away.
Security has always been, and always will be, a layered approach.
Your secure posture isn’t just about tools and size; it’s about how your systems, policies, practices, and culture work together as one cohesive unit.
Unfortunately, security often takes a back seat. And from a business perspective, I get it.
Security doesn’t directly drive revenue. You can’t build a security team without revenue.
I’m not saying it’s right, but it explains why companies delay investing in security.
But inherently, poor decision-making early can cause complications later: Security Tech Debt
But what is Tech Debt exactly?
Originally coined by Ward Cunningham in Agile Manifesto, it’s a term often used in Software Engineering.
“When taking short cuts and delivering code that is not quite right for the programming task of the moment, a development team incurs Technical debt. This debt decreases productivity. This loss of Productivity is the interest of the Technical Debt.”
In layman’s terms, tech debt is the future cost of choosing the quick solution over the right one.
Sometimes tech debt is strategic (think shipping a product fast to beat competitors or to meet a customer demand).
But if left unchecked, it snowballs fast.
So what is tech debt in cybersecurity?
While along the same vein as software engineering, tech debt in cybersecurity is the gap between your ideal implementation and what is actually operational and integrated in your systems.
Like I said above, security is often an afterthought.
The longer you delay, the bigger your attack surface grows. The bigger it grows, the longer it takes to clean up, and the larger a target you become.
How Does Cybersecurity Tech Debt Occur?
Negligence
Ignoring security, at any level, builds cybersecurity tech debt over time.
This can take many forms: outdated software, poor coding practices, bad design choices. All of these create vulnerabilities just waiting to be exploited.
Security is a choice. But it takes the right people to recognize that and commit to it.
Absence of Alignment
Let’s be honest - product and engineering teams often see security as a bottleneck.
And if you put yourself in their shoes, it makes sense. A security review (and the actions items that come as a byproduct) can delay releases, which is why it’s often skipped in favor of shipping features faster.
The fix? Culture.
Security isn’t here to slow things down. It’s here to make sure you’re building a quality product.
Assuming Tools will just Work out of the Box
Newsflash: Most don’t.
Security tools, especially enterprise-grade ones, are complex and expensive (we’re talking six, sometimes seven or even eight-figure contracts per year).
Larger companies often bring in specialists for specific tools to ensure they’re getting the most out of their money.
Here’s the kicker: they only work if you configure them properly.
Many tools are intrusive, so vendors err on the side of caution and disable certain features by default to avoid disrupting your environment. If you don’t take the time to configure them correctly, you’re burning money on software that isn’t doing what you think it is.
If you buy the tool, commit to setting it up the right way.
Drift/Reprioritization
Tech moves fast. Priorities shift.
But when security takes a back seat, your cybersecurity tooling rots, racking up a massive bill without delivering value.
A tool that just sits there, unmaintained and underutilized, is dead weight. And dead weight drains budgets and creates blind spots.
How Does Cybersecurity Tech Debt Affect Your Organization?
A Vulnerable Product
Neglect security early, and you’re shipping a (potentially, but likely) vulnerable product.
The longer you put off fixing security gaps, the more holes you’ll have to fill later. And remember - it only takes one gap for an attacker to slip in and wreak havoc on your application and your customers.
Make secure decisions now to avoid financial and reputational disasters later.
A Vulnerable Organization
Poorly configured security tools create gaps in visibility, which means you don’t know what you can’t see.
Even tools that are up and running but not properly tuned can leave blind spots, giving you a false sense of security.
The result? Attacks like ransomware or data exfiltration.
Again, make secure choices early or pay the price later.
Never Ending Backlog
Cybersecurity tech debt doesn’t just sit there.
It snowballs.
If left unchecked, it can bury your security team under a never-ending backlog of issues, with not enough hours in the day to make a real dent.
And when those gaps turn into security incidents?
Small teams get stuck in a constant firefight, forced to drop everything to respond.
The backlog keeps growing, and before long, it’s quarters of work piled up with no end in sight.
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How to Reduce Cybersecurity Tech Debt
Reducing cybersecurity tech debt starts with recognition.
Realizing you’re in a hole is the first step to digging yourself out.
Here’s how.
Spell it Out
Take a step back and assess your actual security posture.
List out all the high-level work efforts currently in play.
Identify the big problems that need solving.
Look for crossover - prioritize the work that solves multiple issues at once.
The key? Focus on fixing real problems, not just checking boxes.
Consolidate
Cybersecurity tech debt builds up like clutter - so start by clearing it out.
Identify security gaps and prioritize what needs fixing.
Tackle the low-hanging fruit first: update drifted systems, enforce long-overdue policies, and knock out simple backlog tasks.
The goal? Get to a solid security baseline that future-proofs your organization.
Take Your Time
Unless there’s an urgent, unavoidable reason to accept tech debt, slow down and make deliberate choices.
Always start with a problem statement - make sure you’re solving the right problems.
Evaluate the long-term business impact of every decision.
Even in fast-moving situations, due diligence is non-negotiable.
Do Tools the Right Way
Security teams rely on complex tooling—SIEM, SOAR, DAST, SAST, email security, and more.
If you’re investing in these tools, give them the respect they deserve:
Dedicate time for proper setup, tuning, and maintenance.
Build tool assessments into your quarterly roadmap - because if you don’t, tech debt will creep back in.
Overestimate the effort required, bad tooling decisions have a way of coming back to haunt you.
Make Security a Forethought
Security is often sidelined because it doesn’t directly generate revenue.
That’s a flawed mindset. Flip the script.
Work with leadership to integrate security into every phase of development.
Optimize security across the SDLC, so it’s baked in, not bolted on.
Foster a culture where security isn’t seen as a blocker, but as a business enabler.
Security done right makes everything better - the product, the process, and the business itself.
Fight Off That Cybersecurity Tech Debt
Cybersecurity tech debt is a lot like another prevalent subject for security teams: Alert Fatigue.
No matter how hard you try, you’ll never completely outrun it.
But you can make conscious decisions to minimize it.
Build processes that empower your organization to make secure choices.
Foster a culture that values planning, research, and secure architecture.
Hire talent that understands the long-term impact of quality decisions.
If cybersecurity tech debt is overwhelming you now, that doesn’t mean it’s too late to turn things around.
Securely Yours,
The Cybersec Cafe
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