If you’re a CISO, then you know that there will undoubtedly be times when you will be asked to explain your organization’s cybersecurity strategy to your executive members. You will need to provide business insights and explain the importance of cybersecurity solutions.
What kinds of questions should you be prepared for? Here are three common ones:
1. Are we 100% secure?
This, of course, is the ultimate question for any CISO, since you should know better than anyone about any security threats or vulnerabilities that may be present at your organization. CISOs, after all, are tasked with understanding and managing their organizations’ security posture.
The tricky part about this question, however, is that no CISO can honestly claim that a company is 100% secure. That’s not only because there are always new, undiscovered threats that might be lurking, but also because experienced CISOs understand that not every vulnerability is necessarily worth addressing. Some cyber gaps would only result in minimal or no damage to company assets and may be expensive to close. That’s why you should know how to prioritize mitigation plans and be able to demonstrate this to the board.
2. Are we spending enough—and why are we spending so much?
Security spend will always be a major issue for board members, and with good reason: cybersecurity expenses, along with threats, are expected to increase every year. This is why your C-levels want to both be reassured that everything is being done to protect your organization from cyberattacks—and that cybersecurity costs are reasonable and justified.
It’s a tough balance, but cyber risk quantification can help you present your case. By showing your board members the actual price of mitigation versus the price of a possible cyberattack, you can present your budget as being both reasonable and necessary.
3. Are we efficiently allocating resources—and are our investments effective?
Ultimately, your goal will be to present cybersecurity as less of an expense, and more as a wise investment that will ultimately ensure business continuity. To accomplish this, you will need to show that your organization’s cybersecurity strategy is aligned with your business objectives.
For example, if you work for an online retail company, then the goal will likely be to enable sales and profits. This means that your priority should be doing everything in your power to avoid a shutdown, which would result in reduced sales. In addition, protecting your customers’ data privacy would be crucial, because any breach to your company could result in hefty regulatory penalties and a loss of customer trust.
In short, demonstrating that your cybersecurity strategy closely aligns with your business objectives will help you make the case that your investments are sound. To do this, you should be sure to:
- Create a risk profile by identifying attack routes leading to business-critical business assets
- Benchmark your cybersecurity maturity and set goals
- Understand the potential financial impact of cyber incidents
- Build a mitigation plan that reduces the most risk while using the least resources
- Present the required budget and expected outcomes of the mitigation plan
How CYE Helps
CYE uncovers probable threat sources that present real business risks to organizations. Unlike other solution providers, CYE combines technology with red team activity to deliver the most comprehensive and contextual organizational security assessments. Using CYE, you can make better decisions about cyber risk by understanding the true costs of threats and remediation and present those insights to your board members.
Want to learn more about how you can gain insights into your organization’s cyber risk? Contact us today.
