Over the past two decades, the role of Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) has transformed dramatically. The shift to bring-your-own-device (BYOD) models, work-from-anywhere policies, and a hundred other advancements has created unprecedented opportunities for productivity and flexibility. At the same time, however, it has raised the stakes for protecting the organization’s data, systems, and reputation.
Cybersecurity was once a safeguard, but today it is a core business enabler. To find success in the modern business landscape, security must be a part of the conversation from the very beginning. This makes the CISO’s presence in the boardroom essential. Their expertise goes beyond preventing threats. They help the business grow securely and safely navigate a constantly changing digital world.
In this blog, we’ll explore the evolving CISO role and why their position within the business deserves more daylight.
The rise of generative AI and the sharp increase in cyber threats have created a defining moment for the cybersecurity industry. Traversing this technological frontier will be a challenge for all technology and cybersecurity professionals. However, the modern CISO must contend with this and more to find success. Here are the four largest factors shaping the modern CISO:
Cybersecurity readiness is a choice, and CISOs can use outcome-driven cybersecurity metrics and cyber risk scores to paint a clear picture of prevention investments.
Many organizations now develop risk models when creating their digital strategies. Cybersecurity risks and attacks ultimately impact forecasted financial expectations. Considering all the variable factors within cybersecurity incidents, including malware, loss of data, and the impact on the organization’s brand, how can an organization develop a predictable model for risk?
A corporate-wide risk-based approach considers two critical tasks:
Companies have adopted various approaches to reducing cyber risks and their potential impact. Some have focused on improving existing processes and procedures through risk assessments; others have sought to improve technology and information systems.
However, the best way to reduce cyber risk is to adopt a systematic, disciplined process that focuses on identifying and prioritizing threats, then defending against them. In doing so, companies can significantly reduce costs and increase efficiency. They can also avoid wasting money on unnecessary investments and controls in order to focus on the investments that will ultimately reduce risk. These include preventing a loss of data confidentiality from insider threats and breaches.
No longer considered just an expense item, cybersecurity has several businesses benefits, including:
Sound and effective cybersecurity risk management adds a vital element of trust across customers and employees. Customers who trust their providers with their information, including their approach to safeguarding their private information, do more business with those organizations.
Brand protection also benefits from improved cybersecurity investment. Organizations with no reported public or private data breaches, no failures to meet privacy and compliance frameworks, and a proven governance capability embedded into cybersecurity in their culture are more likely to increase brand equity. This culture originates from the board of directors’ investment, acceptance, and leadership in having cybersecurity initiatives placed on par with growth initiatives.
Risk and security incidents continue to rise in large part because of human error and employee negligence. Email phishing attacks continue to impact organizations negatively. Organizations realize cybersecurity is not isolated to one area. A breach can occur across all areas of the organization including 3rd party partners. Adopting a corporate-wide cybersecurity framework, including NIST, CIS 20, or ISO 27001, helps create a unified enterprise-risk reduction and cybersecurity capability.
Organizations often rely on cyber insurance to offset the expense of financial damage from cyber-attacks. Many external audits find that cybersecurity insurance is an immediate necessity to the business; however, they also recognize that financial protection is not a long-term strategy. It is simply a way to reduce the overall cost of a damaging attack. Unfortunately, insurers have found that the loss ratio in cyber insurance has been nearly 110% in many cases and premiums have skyrocketed.
The cost of cybersecurity premiums continues to rise along with demand for more significant layers of cybersecurity solutions, keeping experienced cybersecurity professionals hunting for new technology. The organization must develop and implement security policies, effective security operations (SecOps) capabilities, and capacity to meet the constant security attacks against organizational assets.
Cybersecurity support, revenue gain, and governance positively affect the organization’s stock price, enterprise value, and business operations. Organizations who successfully mitigate attacks against their organization by employing a risk-based cyber strategy continue to be effective. Organizations that suffer from security breaches will lose favor with current and future investors.
Several organizations continue to partner with global IT firms to help with the architecture, deployment, and optimize their blockchain platforms, partially due to the lack of available talent to address cybersecurity concerns.
Digital transformation strategies, including expanding globally into new markets with new products, adds additional risk and potential cybersecurity concerns across the organization’s attack surface. Organizations with a proven well-executed cybersecurity strategy improve their chance of effectiveness as they venture into new global markets. With every expansion, there is risk. Organizations that invest in cyber security adaptive controls and cyber resilience to protect against attacks, damage, and downtime are more successful in their digital transformation strategy.
Organizations gain business value through continuous improvement, monitoring, policy enforcement, and incident response. Developing and improving their cybersecurity maturity helps organizations adjust their proven processes and capabilities instead of reinventing the entire strategy to meet new business requirements.
The corporate SecOps teams should include security controls and processes instead of being treated as a separate security function. Breaches have a direct impact on digital assets and the financial well-being of an organization. In a mature security model, SecOps should be the unified monitoring and response team for all things security.
Cybersecurity is now a strategic business imperative that requires buy-in from the entire executive leadership to mitigate risks. As a result, executives are looking to security leaders to determine the ideal investment and protection strategy.
Hopefully, broader risk and security awareness will provide fewer opportunities for cybercriminals. What this means for companies, however, is that risk management and cybersecurity will have to be better understood by the C-suite and a business-impacting priority for Boards of Directors.
With the CISO in the boardroom, the managing security, business risk, and security ROI will be more calculable, transparent, and integrated into the overall business strategy.