A quote from this article of techzine highlights a crucial challenge in cybersecurity: the gap between technical details and business risks. CISOs and security teams often speak the language of "bits and bytes", while executives are focused on the impact on business operations.
To bridge this gap and create a culture of shared responsibility, there are several solutions.
1. Effective communication:
- Use clear and concise language: Avoid jargon and technical terms that are not understood by everyone. Explain complex technical concepts in simple, business terms.
- Focus on impact: Quantify the potential damage of cyber threats in terms of financial losses, reputational damage, or disruption to business operations.
- Link cybersecurity to strategic goals: Show how cybersecurity contributes to achieving broader business objectives.
- Use storytelling: Share real-world examples of cyber attacks and their impact on other organisations to highlight the importance of cybersecurity.
2. Involving executives:
- Make cybersecurity a boardroom priority: Ensure cybersecurity is discussed at the highest level of the organisation.
- Involve executives in the development of cybersecurity strategies: Get their input and support to create robust policies.
- Regular updates and reports: Keep executives updated on cybersecurity status, including threats, risks and actions taken.
- Invest in training and awareness: Ensure that all executives understand the basics of cybersecurity and know their role in protecting the organisation.
3. Culture of shared responsibility:
- Make cybersecurity everyone's responsibility: Emphasise that cybersecurity is not just the job of IT or security teams, but of all employees.
- Encourage open communication: Encourage employees to report suspicious activity and create a culture where mistakes can be discussed without fear of reprisals.
- Invest in training and awareness for all employees: Ensure that all employees understand the basics of cybersecurity and know how to behave safely online.
- Use gamification and incentives: Make cybersecurity fun and engaging by using gamification techniques and incentives to reward employees for good cyber behaviour. (see e.g. AXS Guard: Easter Egg + Capture The Flag)
- Invest in training and awareness: Ensure that all executives understand the basics of cybersecurity and know their role in protecting the organisation.
Conclusion
By implementing these solutions, CISOs can bridge the gap between security teams and executives, create a culture of shared responsibility and better protect the organisation from cyber threats.
In addition to the above points, it is also important to invest in the right technologies and tools to manage and automate cybersecurity. This can help CISOs and security teams do their jobs more efficiently and provide executives with the data they need to make informed decisions.
Bridging the gap between CISOs, security teams and executives