There’s an infinite game taking place against your network. Threats are becoming more sophisticated as businesses continue to move even more applications and data as well as employ software and services online. This game will keep developing, changing and adapting, so organizations need to be prepared and committed throughout – and their response needs to be organized and systematic. While cybersecurity has traditionally been seen as an add-on to basic business functions, it is now rapidly becoming an integral part of everyday business practices. As a result, even if cybersecurity isn’t an everyday action item on the executive’s calendar, it has become a significant priority that requires his or her attention.
However, figuring out how familiar a CXO needs to be with his or her enterprise’s technology is becoming a real challenge. How much do I really need to understand first hand? And how much can I delegate to someone else and trust that those decisions are sound? Many executives are beginning to realize that they need to understand how cybersecurity affects their bottom line, and understanding how the flow of business is affected by the company’s security posture.
While it might be easy for executives with non-technical backgrounds to simply assign responsibility for cybersecurity to the CSO, CISO or IT team, this would be a mistake. CXOs might see the iceberg ahead, but do they really understand the size of the problem below the surface?
Getting the CXO Involved
Encouraging greater CXO involvement will be the result of small changes in attitude and habit over time. It’s similar to the development of traffic rules. As more drivers took to the roads, rules needed to be put in place to ensure everyone’s safety. As technology improved and speeds increased, new rules were needed: speed limits, seat belts, airbags and so on. These rules became commonplace and were adopted as default standards – in other words, they became part of the culture. Now, people recognize that transportation comes with certain risks, but risks that can be lowered by the right procedures and responsible behavior.
As executives learn more about cybersecurity landscape and what steps are needed to protect the enterprise, we can create policies and procedures that lead to organization-wide change – and these new policies need to start from the top down to ensure not only security, but also compliance with regulations and industry standards.
When top-level executives get involved in cybersecurity, then the whole organization starts to operate in a different way. Executive involvement sets the tone that cybersecurity is a priority. If the top executives are not involved directly, it can give the impression that cybersecurity is not a number one priority; you can do it tomorrow or whenever you have time. When the board or CEO starts asking the management team about what measures the company has in place to avoid becoming a headline, then there’s a much bigger chance of real change taking place.
Best Practices
Where to start? To begin the process of immersing yourself more in the company’s cybersecurity efforts, the following best practices are a good place to start:
Measurable Business Benefits
These aren’t just “nice to have” suggestions. There are measurable business benefits for greater CXO involvement in cybersecurity. If your network gets infected and your servers go down, that downtime will have a measurable effect on your company’s bottom line, not to mention the sustained operational costs and damage to brand value and reputation with customers and partners. The best cybersecurity infrastructure is unobtrusive, working quietly in the background without getting in the way of business. Instead of a cost center, as many view it today, cybersecurity works best when it is viewed as a growth enabler or differentiator, by permitting the type of innovative investments that allow the company to scale into new markets. Many companies have security concerns about storing data off-premises, but the right security strategy can permit the enterprise to take advantage of the agility and cost savings the cloud provides. Such a strategy also saves organizations from the damage that a successful attack can have on the company’s brand, revenue and stock value.
Ultimately, partners and customers must be able to trust your company’s solutions, products and services. By leading from the top down, the CXO can help ensure that the organization is protected appropriately while maintaining performance and ensuring that security measures do not disrupt operations in any way. Once the CXO has established a security game plan for the organization and is confident that his or her team is performing on the right level, you can trust in your critical information flow and sleep better at night.
Looking Ahead
While everybody understands the importance of cybersecurity, often it’s only in abstract terms. Once you have a breach, however, then you will really have to understand what’s going on. If your building catches on fire, there is infrastructure built into the ceilings and walls at the ready to prevent and extinguish the flames. Cybersecurity should be no different. It’s clear that CXOs have a lot on their plates, and cybersecurity may not be their number one priority every day. With the breaches of 2014 and 2015 still fresh in shareholders’ memories, however, CXOs are taking steps to ensure that cybersecurity is always on their radar. CXOs need to make cybersecurity a top priority in their organizations and take an active role in ensuring that they have processes and procedures in place that are being updated and adhered to. Cybersecurity is a team effort, but change needs to start from the top down.