As the old saying goes, “it’s difficult to make predictions, especially about the future”, however it would be hard to find many leaders today who predict their businesses using less technology or being less dependent on data in the future.
Businesses anticipate capturing great rewards from the emerging technology revolution, driven in large part by huge advancements in AI. Yet, as leaders gear up to realize productivity gains, deeper levels of customer insights, and tighter levels of automated compliance and controls, they do so against a landscape of increasingly sustained and sophisticated cyber-security threats. Moreover, most leaders face heightened scrutiny over cyber exposure from management committees and boards.
Forward-thinking organizations have long recognized the strategic importance of data security and the office of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). As the threats and opportunities evolve, so does the scope of the CISO role. While in the past, the office held one major responsibility, to keep the company safe from a cyber-breach, today’s information security leaders must play at least five critical and distinct roles:
- Educate: CISOs need to educate staff at all levels of the organization. Raising awareness about cybersecurity goes well beyond reminding employees to change their passwords every few weeks. According to research from the world economic forum, 93 percent of leaders of organizations excelling in cyber resilience trust their CEO to speak externally about their cyber risk1. Education and awareness efforts must extend upwards and outwards, with CISOs personally educating senior leadership in a manner that is both simple to grasp, yet comprehensive enough to instill credibility and confidence.
- Influence: CISOs cannot protect their businesses from cyber-attack alone and must engage with the entire C-suite to deliver a world-class function. This means partnering with technology to ensure that systems and networks have adequate protection, with finance to ensure adequate funding, and with HR to make sure that training and development for all associates is kept current. Wielding this “soft power” is a core new capability for incoming or inspiring CISOs.
- Anticipate: CISOs need to stay ahead of the next threat or threats without overwhelming the team or the organization. Creating credible and comprehensive incident response plans requires CISOs to keep their eyes firmly on the road ahead and prioritize finite resources carefully but ruthlessly.
- Reassure: While the role of a CISO requires a significant amount of “healthy paranoia,” the leader also needs to bring a sense of calm and reassurance to the management team and the board. This means being honest and open about the threats and measures taken, but sharing them in the language and context of business strategy and operations.
- Respond: If and when a cyber-attack comes, the CISO needs to respond decisively and execute the right plan to isolate impact, minimize business disruption, and reassure customers, senior leadership, and investors.
Data security will be one of the most critical enablers of growth across the next business cycle. Companies poised to reap the greatest success will be those with the leadership vision to capture the benefits of emerging technology while continuously evolving their approach to data security. It is therefore imperative this valuable asset is both monetized and safeguarded, just like any other form of business-critical intellectual property.
1 WEF_Global_Cybersecurity_Outlook_2024.pdf (weforum.org)
