The evolution of the digital space has perennially been shadowed by cyberthreats, demanding the utmost attention and strategic maneuvers from businesses to protect not only their technological assets but, intrinsically, their entire business value. A balanced partnership among IT, cybersecurity, and risk management professionals has arguably never been so paramount. One report emphasized that CEOs of substantial organizations perceive cybersecurity not merely as a technical challenge but an existential risk, advocating an enterprise-wide strategy that integrates the skills and perspectives of chief information security officers (CISO), chief information officers (CIO), and chief risk officers (CRO) as well as other unit leaders to jointly comprehend and counteract cyber threats effectively. But how?
The Current Paradigm: Disproportional Reliance on CISOs
Many companies inadvertently place the onus predominantly on the shoulders of the CISO. This specialist may interact with teams steered by the CRO and CIO, but more often than not, this collaboration is sporadic and lacks a unified, strategic alignment. In this CISO-centered approach, there’s a potentially harmful skew towards a technical perspective of cybersecurity, frequently neglecting the essential lens of business-risk awareness and mitigation. Given that the CISO and their team frequently become the exclusive contact point in cybersecurity crises, there’s an inadvertent perpetuation of the belief that cybersecurity is solely their domain. This isolated strategy can inadequately address the broader and often more sinister, underlying risks and jeopardize organizational resilience in the face of cyberthreats.
Infusing a Risk Lens: A Vital Yet Overlooked Perspective
Undeniably, an integration of a robust risk management perspective is pivotal. Many companies have witnessed an irrational tilt either towards immediate issues that arrest senior leaders’ attention or towards the prevailing cybersecurity crisis, often leading to potential neglect of more significant vulnerabilities. The introduction of a risk oversight could ensure that cybersecurity strategies safeguard crucial assets, where a breach could inflict maximal damage, be it reputational, regulatory, or financial. Concurrently, this approach would pragmatically enable the allocation of resources to mitigate risks, addressing them in a financially and operationally viable manner.
A Hurdle to Overcome: Obstacles to CISO–Risk Synergy
In spite of the acknowledgment of the cruciality of CISO–Risk collaboration, several barriers obstruct its seamless realization. Among these barriers, the most elementary yet significant is a lack of clarity in the application of the “lines-of-defense” concept in managing cyberrisk. This concept, particularly observed in financial institutions, demarcates three defense lines—business and operations managers, risk and compliance functions, and internal auditors.
However, in cyberrisk management, the cybersecurity function serves as the first line of defense, initiating risk-mitigating interventions that shield against threats emerging from business and IT operations, while the risk function acts as the second line of defense, partnering with the first to identify and prioritize cyberrisks. Despite the theoretical distinction and collaboration, the boundaries between these defense lines often blur in practice, emphasizing a need for a structured yet flexible collaborative framework that allows the sharing and challenging of perspectives, ideas, and strategies, facilitating a more holistic and robust approach to managing cyberrisk.
A Path Forward: Intensive Collaboration and Coordinated Strategy
The recalibration towards an intensive and coordinated collaborative strategy among IT, cybersecurity, and risk management teams is a non-negotiable requirement for modern businesses. By consolidating technical and risk-based perspectives, organizations can architect a more formidable, encompassing, and business-value-oriented cybersecurity stance. This not only ensures the safeguarding of technological and informational assets but inherently protects and propels the entire business value.
The fundamental question that emerges is how to intricately weave risk management into the cybersecurity framework effectively and sustainably. For further insights into fostering such potent collaboration, visit our Connected Risk holistic GRC solutions page to learn more about how to collaborate.
