Board members need to be aware of the cyber-security risks facing their company to ensure that they steer the business in a secure direction. However, this isn’t always straightforward.
Traditionally, cybersecurity has been an area that was reserved for technologists working in remote server rooms. Cyber risk has become a business risk that impacts every aspect of a business particularly in the wake of recent huge security breaches, such as those at Colonial Pipeline and Equifax.
In the process boards are demanding more from their security teams and CISOs. Board members need to know how a well trained security team can protect themselves against sophisticated threats, whether that’s through increasing spending on new solutions and ensuring that staff are properly educated. This message needs to be relayed to non-technical executives within the boardroom.
An effective way to do this is to align security with business goals and use real-time metrics. Through regular communication which highlight the changes in your security measures, a decrease in risk index, as well as other important metrics, you can provide the board members the information they require to guide decisions. Tell a story, instead of simply distributing numbers. You can demonstrate to your board how quick actions helped to ward off a significant threat by sharing a real life-like example.
