Behind the scenes, in boardrooms across the country, there are conversations taking place between business leaders and CISOs. Business leaders are trying to ascertain how well cybersecurity is protecting their business and CISOs are trying to communicate how their cyber risk program is doing so. 

Ultimately, they’re aiming for the same goal, business success, but they struggle to find a common language to realise this. They may be singing from the same hymn sheet, it's just that they may be written in different languages. 

Aligning cybersecurity with business success requires CISOs to find a way to effectively communicate the importance and impact of their cyber risk management program to the wider business. This means leaving technical language at the door and leveraging their seat at the table armed with answers to the questions business leaders care about in a language they understand: the language of business. 

Here are 6 questions board members want CISOs to be ready to answer at upcoming board meetings in a language they understand: numbers and percentages backed by industry data.

‍

1. How well are our investments doing to protect the company and shareholder value? 

The last thing any business wants is to make the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Beyond the bad press, cyber attacks impact revenue, damage share prices, and raise regulatory scrutiny. The board needs confidence from CISOs that they have considered this in their cyber risk management program and have an effective strategy to protect the business. 

For some businesses, this may be as straightforward as demonstrating to the board that they are complying with legal and compliance requirements. However, for an increasing number of organizations, business leaders and boards need a more detailed and understanding of how well their business is protected. X-Analytics presents data allowing CISOs to easily show a top-down view of a business’ total cyber risk, how their controls are reducing this, what risk still needs to be addressed and what is covered by their cyber insurance. By showing how their risk mitigation measures are actively reducing their overall business risk, CISOs are able to provide the reassurance business leaders need that they are effectively protecting the company. 

‍

2. What’s our roadmap for cybersecurity? 

Boards want to see a clear plan and roadmap for cybersecurity - supported by clear business objectives and business alignment.

Business leaders understand the importance of cybersecurity but they want to be able to see the measurable impact of their investment. They need to understand how the CISOs roadmap aligns with business goals and priorities, working with the rest of the organization to deliver business success. 

That’s where X-Analytics can help. X-Analytics allows businesses to see an overview of their current risk levels, exposure areas and mitigation strategies while tracking their progress and highlighting the value and ROI cybersecurity has delivered over time.

‍

3. How do emerging cyber threats, like AI and ransomware, impact the business? 

Cyber risk and business risk do not live in separate silos. Cyber risk is business risk, but a lack of wider business understanding often means that cybersecurity is viewed as an IT technical problem, not a business problem.

Fortunately, this is changing as news of cyber incidents continues to reach the headlines. No one wants to be the next business facing a SolarWinds or CDK event. These attacks don’t just pose cyber risk, but a very tangible business risk as well. CISOs need to be able to assure C-Suite and board members that they are effectively capturing changes in the cyber threat landscape and feeding these into their program continuously. 

Businesses need threat intelligence that aggregates and analyzes cyber risk to inform their strategies. With X-Analytics businesses have access to this data and intelligence and it’s being continually updated as the threat landscape evolves.  This way, users can be sure they’re seeing full, accurate information as it becomes available and use this to form the backbone of an ever-evolving cyber risk management strategy.

‍

4. How is the cybersecurity program aligned with our business goals? 

Just like how cyber risk and business risk are two sides of the same coin, so too are cybersecurity goals and business goals. As with all areas of business, having alignment between different teams, all pulling the business in the same direction is key. CISOs need to be able to communicate their cybersecurity roadmap in a way that directly ties these two things together for the C-Suite and board members.

This means CISOs should aim to start cybersecurity board discussions with financial exposure analysis based on real data from their company’s quarterly earnings and operating budget (they can easily access these insights with X-Analytics). Once the room realises the CISO is speaking their language, a light bulb switches on and brightens the room. By getting everyone on the same page from the very beginning, CISOs are far more likely to convince stakeholders to support their strategy. 

‍

5. What is the expected ROI for this proposed cybersecurity investment?

One of the most common conversations between CISOs, C-Suite and the board, is around cybersecurity investment. Business leaders want to know what they can expect in return from allocating budget to cybersecurity and CISOs often struggle to articulate this in monetary terms For too long, cybersecurity has been seen as a cost, rather than an investment and businesses need to be able to understand the true ROI of their cybersecurity program. Business leaders have been burnt by the proliferation of cybersecurity technologies that promise the world, but deliver little in practice - or at least don’t deliver any measurable results that truly drive business success. CISOs need to be coming to board meetings prepared to discuss and demonstrate the tangible impact of the cybersecurity program and the ROI it’s delivering for the business. 

Demonstrating cybersecurity ROI can be a challenge for businesses. X-Analytics brings this to your fingertips in a simple and effective way by highlighting the connection between technology investments and business financial benefit showing how different risk mitigation improvements reduce potential losses before they’ve been implemented.

‍

6. How does our cyber risk program compare to our peers? 

Benchmarking is often used within cybersecurity to determine how good is good enough. Businesses look to their competitors and industry peers to understand how their cyber risk management strategies measure up. 

For C-Suite and boards, understanding the business's risk levels in the context of wider industry averages allows them to understand how much they need to invest in cybersecurity. For CISOs, it highlights where they can invest to take their program to the next level. 

By asking this question, businesses are able to align where they are currently, with where they want to go and build a strategy to get there. 

X-Analytics combines a business's unique risk profile with open-source data and proprietary industry insights, providing a comprehensive view of its exposure to cyber security attacks. This facilitates better discussions in the boardroom that affect, direct, and align business strategy.  

‍

The NACD recommends X-Analytics 

The National Association of Corporate Director’s (NACD) endorses X-Analytics as the preferred boardroom cyber risk reporting solution for their over 23,000 members. X-Analytics provides a living cyber and governance program that operates from day one at the speed of their business. Engage business leaders in the language they understand. 

‍

X-Analytics CEO, John Frazzini, on enabling communication between boards and CISOs

Cybersecurity experts John Frazzini and  Ed Amoroso (TAG Cyber) recently sat down to how boards and CISOs can implement more effective cybersecurity communication practices in order to effectively drive business success through cyber risk management.

‍

‍