CEOs and Cybersecurity Best Practices

What Should CEOs, CFOs, and CIOs Know & Do About Cybersecurity

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Cyber Security: Risk Assessment, Best Practices

 With the evolution of technology, the risk of cyber threat has grown exponentially both in sophistication and complexity. Since cyber attacks impact businesses of all sizes, it is but critical for CEOs, CFOs, and CIOs to stay informed about cyber security and take concerted efforts to deal with the menace. Here is a compilation of best practices to manage the threat from cyber risk. This should help you better manage risks and bolster cyber threat awareness. Security experts can provide insight into current threats and ever-increasing technological and operational challenges. Organisations may need guidance on :

  • Bolster action plan so that the risk assessment process is in place
  • Get a clear understanding of the type of data leaving your company
  • Assess the risk from cyber criminals
  • Identify the board committee responsible
  • Consider your security team’s preparedness against a data breach

C-Level Executives and Cyber Security Risk Assessment

When security is compromised, it has a severe impact on your business reputation. It could severely affect your chances of success and give the competition an edge. So whose responsibility is it anyway to safeguard the company and reputation?

Well, cyber security is not just the headache of the IT department, a CIO, or CISO. The responsibility lies with CEOs, board members, and employees, all of whom must proactively take steps to mitigate the risk.

A CEO must make it aptly clear to the entire organization that its at the top of the priority list. They must be clear enough on everyone’s role in the shared responsibility. It would help to focus on creating a culture in the organization as the best defense against cyber attacks.

A CEO must harp on the importance of creating a strong culture, with a focus on the people, not technology as far as organizational defense against cyber attack is concerned.

Cyber Security Statistics & C-Level Executives 

Cyber attacks and security breaches adversely affect a business, from damaged reputation to loss of competitive edge, compliance breaches, and loss of productivity. Statistics reveal that a data breach costs an organization on average about $6.4million.

About 75% of companies do not involve their board of directors in cyber security service matters. Surveys stress that unauthorized access from a former or current employee is responsible for 60% of data breaches.

CEOs and Cyber Security Best Practices & Challenges
A CEO should have the answer to the following questions about potential cyber risk from his internal team :

        How much is the risk of cyber threat to our organization?

        Is our organization prepared to manage risk based on our business model?

        What is the extent of risk posed by threat to different functions of the company? This includes finance, supply chain, human resources, and public relations.

        Is critical information at risk? Do cyber attacks pose a threat to customer data, trade secrets, customer data, and personally identifiable information?

        Are we prepared to manage the risk? Is our  strategy aligned with the risk posed?

        How much of our IT budget should be spent on cyber security threat assessment and challenges posed?

        Does our business participate in cyber threat information exchanges and with whom?

Cyber Security Best Practices

Ten things CEOs must focus on related to cyber security best practices:

1.     Emphasize on education and awareness training for all through the organization.

2.      Conduct risk assessment to identify potential gaps in the company’s security strategy.

3.    Assign the task of periodic penetration testing to certified ethical hackers to identify potential cyber security threats.

4.    Ensure that that a timely software patch management program is implemented by the IT security team to mitigate potential security vulnerabilities.

5.      Ensure constant and unhindered monitoring of information systems.

6.      Confirm that an effective breach response plan is in place.

7.      Assign the task of evaluation of cyber liability policy coverage adequacy to an independent agency.

8.      Lay down key information security performance indicators.

9.      Confirm that well-documented disaster recovery plan is in place. Also, make sure that periodically tested business continuity plans are implemented properly for the recovery of lost or stolen data during a cyber attack.

10.   Implement additional security layers through multi-factor authentication and data encryption. It is important to restrict user access to the critical information assets of the company.

 Pinnacle is one of the leading cyber security companies in UAE, committed to helping you bolster information security. We pride ourselves on our cyber threat risk assessment strategy and can formulate an effective cyber security strategy for the fast-evolving security environment. 

posted by Pinnacle Marketing Dept