Cybersecurity is a high priority among organizations and one of the principal issues CIOs deal with regularly. CIOs must assess their cybersecurity landscape and develop proactive strategies to protect their business files from external security threats. This is done by partnering with CEOs to address IT security and associated risk management.
Cybersecurity experts urge CIOs to discover network assets, perform vulnerability assessments, embrace identity governance, and hire white hat ethical hackers as potential solutions to safeguarding business data. As such, CIOs should be mindful of the following domains in IT security.–After all, they could pose a threat to business intelligence and data acquisition.
Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) Services
A CIO will have to evaluate BYOC risks before deciding if any adjustments need to be made. They should ensure that the BYOC program is well-structured–capable of separating say, personal from professional data. It would be practical to check for data leaks and see if employees are able to access it on their smart devices. This situation warrants consistent oversight and attention to cloud hosting services.
Government Enforced Privacy Regulations
There have been new privacy and data breach regulations issued by the government to protect personal information on the internet. These laws penalize organizations that fail to comply with the stated conditions. In effect, it applies to the use of information, raising overhead costs in privacy management beyond just security measures.
The Consequences of Not Acting Soon Enough
A CIO is in charge of connecting infrastructure across multiple domains to combat evolving security threats. They are advised to take precautionary steps to avoid the loss of clients caused by data breaches. Otherwise, this will damage the company’s reputation and reduce its commercial success. Since cyber-attacks are becoming more sophisticated, dangerous threats are harder to detect without updating security systems.
Provide Cybersecurity Training to Employees
Businesses may lose the trust of customers and partners if cybercriminals and hackers continue to target the brand. A CIO needs to train their organization to protect sensitive corporate data and block third-parties from tampering with intellectual property. This is usually a time-consuming process, especially when CIOs are using a multi-source support strategy.
Important Cybersecurity Metrics in a Risk Management Program
Botnet Infections: Every organization should monitor how many botnet infections occurred on the network. A CIO can factor in the time spent on repairing devices after the infection has occurred. The sooner they recognize a security breach, the better as this minimizes detection deficits.
User Logs: CIOs have the authority to grant or revoke user privileges based on whether there have been signs of suspicious activities detected. One way to benchmark this metric is to trace the percentage of employees with network access. It could involve observing anyone who has super-user access and is familiar with corporate infrastructure.
Outsourced Tasks: CIOs are encouraged to continue monitoring third party vendors through performing audits, vulnerability scans, and penetration tests. They need to understand what critical vendors are doing with their security on a regular basis, knowing that those who communicate via corporate networks are working directly with internal data.
Cybersecurity Metrics CIOs Should Watch Out For and Report Accordingly
- Comparing organization and peer performance at board meetings
- Tracking security analytics with BitSight Security Ratings
- Distinguish between an incident and a vulnerability found on the network
- Measure how fast the company responds to a compromised system
- Install effective cybersecurity programs to wipe out malware before it causes irreparable damage
- Shut down security incidents using internal processes and resources to improve network visibility
- Run a security assessment or audit to patch up high-risk findings
- Initiate a patch cadence to review the number of critical vulnerabilities and bugs remaining on the system
Are CIOs able to stay ahead of security threats with the current systems in place?
There is no doubt that threat intelligence is a worthwhile investment; firms are responsible for making informed decisions when reacting to potential threats. In general, they gather intel on a threat to determine its validity and trace conditions that lead to the exploit. Consequently, cyber-attacks often target IT assets so a threat intelligence program is needed to actively monitor any risk.
On the whole, CIOs will get notified of recent security threats, backed by analytics detailing the nature of exploits. They are aware that cybersecurity is more than just an IT-related threat–it impacts stakeholders and users simultaneously. A security breach has damaging PR implications as well.
By and large, silos are no longer the best approach to dealing with vulnerabilities since it impedes communication between IT professionals and the executive board. It is necessary to integrate IT security into business leadership in order to grow and innovate IT governance. This is true with regards to data protection and aligning IT strategy with business goals, thereby boosting performance levels.
C-suite Collaboration is Key to Securing Enterprise Assets
A lack of communication is an ongoing problem when CIOs are not transparent with unit managers prior to proposing a security approach. With this in mind, there needs to be engagement between CIOs, board members, and CEOs in order to implement an effective risk mitigation protocol. Other than identifying risks, they can move onto risk escalation steps and finally, develop an entire organization-wide response. In short, cyber risk management demands their expertise.
An important area to focus on is risk assessment for outsourced workflows.
Although many organizations have outsourced their core business functions, they could be at a disadvantage by choosing to partner with vendors that have access to sensitive data. Under these conditions, CIOs would have to address data security measures with third-party agencies to prepare for cyber-attacks. In particular, third parties are the biggest source of data breaches; therefore, CIOs should hold them to the same standards as the rest of the organization.
Invest in Cybersecurity Training to Educate IT Professionals on Emerging Threats
One possible method to improve data privacy and cybersecurity training is by integrating game mechanics into a company-owned website or enterprise app. This gamification model is designed to increase user engagement and motivate stakeholders to play a part in monitoring devices for system-wide attacks. It is an excellent approach to educating employees about system vulnerabilities using gameplay elements such as leveling up characters or earning a high score.
A Risk Assessment is Paramount in Identifying the Root Cause of Incidents
Risk analyses allow CIOs to understand why a security incident occurred and figure out how to resolve it. The exploitation of information security often stems from internal threats such as the misuse of company devices and the execution of unstable, seldom-tested programs. The introduction of mobile technology and cloud-based storage also throws a wrench into the mix. The next step is to summarize the key performance indicators and use them to give the cybersecurity system a much-needed update.
