The Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) role has evolved dramatically in recent years, and in 2023, with the proliferation of incredible new technologies as well as highly sophisticated cyber-attacks, the CISO role has never been more important. But with this increased profile, the challenge becomes much greater.
Scope is one issue. The CISO role was once “niche” – about keeping an organization secure. The role has become one where they must both keep security nailed down and help ensure the business is securely and intelligently leveraging data and technology.
With this dramatic shift in focus comes the need for CISOs to understand the business from top to bottom, and to develop – refining on an ongoing basis – that now-essential skill: communicating the whats and whys of their vision and evolving security program.
Factors in play
“It’s a whole new ballgame for today’s CISO,” said ITWC CIO Jim Love. “As full influencers and deciders in organizations, and having shaken free that old reputation as a cost center, CISOs must focus on building a coherent business case for cybersecurity, which hopefully makes investment a no-brainer to other top-level decision makers.”
Download “Making the Business Case for Cybersecurity”
But communication isn’t the only challenge facing CISOs today. They must also have a firm grasp on their company’s privacy strategy. No organization today can achieve privacy without security, and a security group cannot comply with whatever privacy laws and regulations are in effect unless they clearly understand what is required and expected. Privacy and security can by no means operate in individual silos.
As the world becomes more and more vigilant of security breaches and invasions of privacy, the CISO’s job becomes that much more complex. While those in larger companies might be able to rely on in-house legal experts to make sense of privacy laws and regulations, CISOs at smaller companies are left more on their own.
Advice from three CISOs
The white paper “Making the Business Case for Cybersecurity” – brought to you by AWS – acknowledges two key facts:
- First, that the CISO role has changed greatly over the past few decades; and
- Second, that this change – coupled with the evolution of hackers from friendless misfits in basements to savvy and super-creative professionals – has made it imperative that CISOs become adept at making a compelling business case to other company decision-makers for any and all investments in security.
The white paper came out of interviews with CISOs in three separate industries. Each CISO shared knowledge, tips, and insights around their experiences of the changed and changing security landscape, and discussed such topics as:
- Managing data and using it to make more intelligent business decisions;
- Coping with or finding ways around the global tech talent shortage; and
- Battling today’s cyber bad actors, many of whom may be employing AI and automation
This white paper answers the question of how CISOs can make the business case for investment in cybersecurity programs.
Do you struggle to “get” how executives at your organization perceive value? Do you lack a solid plan to communicate the value you and your team bring, and what vision you are working toward? This white paper will help you find the answers you need.