Businesses are exposed to numerous attacks every day. In this sense, organizations need to have optimal security measures. A data breach can seriously discredit the company, and then regaining the trust of customers is no easy task. For this reason, executive participation is necessary when it comes to investing in security.
Linking security budgets to breach protection results helps executives balance expense with risk, and CISOs gain greater respect in the enterprise.
The tenuous relationship between CISOs and executives
Generally, the relationship between most CISOs and CISOs and company executives is weak. A part of the CISO’s job is to establish security programs that protect the company from security breaches. On the other hand, executives have an obligation to protect their organization from unacceptable harm.
The problem, however, is that these executives are typically not presented with quantifiable, data-driven security strategies and action plans. If it is done in this way, it is possible to know how it affects the budget of the organization and also what consequences it could have not to adopt these security measures.
This situation exposes executives to outside rivals such as opposing investors, insurers, and legal advisers with respect to corporate exposure to cyber risk. In addition, within the organization, CISOs compete for limited funds against other departments and sometimes have to deal with investment options that are more attractive.
Establish risk expectations and justify investment in security
If we want to better manage these challenges, we need a security plan , which establishes an expectation of the level of cyber risk results according to the budget we have. One of the things that can be achieved with this is to be clear about the expense that our company must make in terms of investment in security. The other would be that, in the event that the budget is reduced, the CISO can demonstrate the cybersecurity risk that such reduction produces.
Traditionally, security strategies have typically been based on vulnerability hunters, threat detectors, and risk calculators. The problem is, they are often too abstract to connect with executives. The best way is to adopt a safety and economics approach . We need a control that shows the cost and the reward that is obtained. Executive satisfaction often increases if we can demonstrate the benefits of the investment.
How CISOs should approach the problem to improve the relationship with executives
CISOs, to set better expectations with executives, must take an economical approach to security. Some of the questions to ask are the following:
- Where are we focusing protection? Is this justified?
- What levels and types of protection can we provide? How much they cost?
- Can we monitor our development and operations to ensure their profitability?
- Can the results be independently verified?
By framing safety in relation to risk, it becomes clearer to balance spending with potential risk outcomes. A data information leak from an organization can be very damaging to an organization and, if it is very serious, it can lead to its closure. In addition, it must be borne in mind that later recovering the lost prestige is a complicated task.
These options can show how much budget will be allocated to receive different levels of protection. Also seen in reverse exposes cyber risk. Sometimes CISOs believe that they are not respected enough or that they are not being listened to. However, this may be because they have not presented a risk / benefit based approach. Lastly, improving security investment requires a modern CISO that thinks about both security and economics.