5 Ways to Reduce Cybersecurity Risk and Win Over Your CEO and CTO
In today’s always-connected world it’s important to realize that, historically and traditionally, cybersecurity was the responsibility of the IT department. Any time a cyberincident or data breach occurred or security questions arose, these got deferred to IT for the answers.
But with today’s massive data breaches and very costly cyberattacks, the responsibility of cybersecurity has moved to the executive level and into the boardroom, and this is where important security discussions are now taking place. However, failure to translate cyber risk into business risk has left many businesses clueless on what to do.
Here are five ways to win over your CEO and CTO and reduce the risk on becoming a victim of cybercrime. Don’t let any aspect of your cybersecurity conversation get lost in translation—this can make all the difference between staying safe and experiencing a cyber catastrophe. You and your CEO/CTO must speak the same language and find common ground.
Passion for Metrics: Know and Measure Your Risk
Yes, you need to have passion for your work, and more than ever in cybersecurity, as you need to constantly measure and reduce your ever-growing cybersecurity threats. When you’re passionate about cybersecurity metrics you’ll quickly learn to measure success and will become more efficient and effective. Having the right metrics to measure your organization’s risk can help everyone sleep better at night. Knowing where all your privileged accounts are secured in your organization, who has access and when they are being used is a crucial metric to have at hand, and one your CEO/CTO will welcome when needed. Help your CEO and CTO get to know which metrics are critical by gifting them with a Cybersecurity Metrics report.
Trust and Empower your Teams: Invest in People as Much as Technology
Absolutely trust, enable and empower your people. In cybersecurity, technology alone cannot be successful without people keeping it on track. You must invest equally in your people as you do in cybersecurity. A strong leadership and team will withstand most cyberattacks. A CEO and CTO will be only as good as the awesome and skilled people around them, so having trust and an empowered team will quickly win their hearts. Get your teams an enterprise privileged account management solution to avoid the cyberfatigue and the headaches caused by improperly managing and using passwords. This will help your team be efficient and effective at the important needs of the business.
Honest: Cut the Bulls***
CEOs and CTOs don’t have time for fluff or hiding details. A quick way to win over a CEO and CTO is via honesty. Make sure they have the facts and data to make the right decision. If you do not have an answer, let them know and tell them what you are doing to get it. A dashboard that gives the CEO/CTO visibility with quick answers will give them the most important data on how privileged accounts are being used and will win their heart. Make sure they have privileged behavior analytics to keep them honest and in the know.
Communication: Keep it Clear and Find Common Ground
Another way to win over your CEO and CTO is through clear and solid communication. Sometimes not being on the same page, or not knowing how to translate cybersecurity risk into one that helps the business is where most people fail. Don’t let poor communication prevent you from being successful. A great way to help your CEO and CTO understand cybersecurity risk is to educate them on what is important and how to make the biggest impact.
Finally, KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid)
Cybersecurity is not effective when it’s too complex. It’s important to keep cybersecurity simple to ensure it’s sustainable. It is no longer effective to install complex, time-consuming or expensive solutions. Keep your CEO and CTO happy and win them over by keeping your cybersecurity simple and attaining value and effective security by choosing solutions that preserve the balance between technology and people.
