Security Tools Alone Don't Protect You — Control Effectiveness Does
May 08, 2025
Risk Management / Compliance
61% of security leaders reported suffering a breach due to failed or misconfigured controls over the past 12 months. This is despite having an average of 43 cybersecurity tools in place. This massive rate of security failure is clearly not a security investment problem. It is a configuration problem. Organizations are beginning to understand that a security control installed or deployed is not necessarily a security control configured to defend against real-world threats. The recent Gartner® Report , Reduce Threat Exposure With Security Controls Optimization, addresses the gap between intention and outcome. We feel it discusses a hard truth: without continuous validation and tuning, security tools deliver a false sense of, well, security. In this article, we'll take a deep dive into why control effectiveness should be the new benchmark for cybersecurity success, and how organizations can make this shift. The Myth of Tool Coverage Buying more tools has long been considered the k...