With business and technology becoming increasingly intertwined, organizations are being forced to rethink how they look at digital security. Once overlooked or viewed as a mere afterthought, today it has become a business-critical necessity. As a result, organizations across industry lines are racing to improve their security postures. Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) are at the core of this transformation, spearheading a wave of proactive and future-forward cybersecurity change while enabling security-first innovation.

The latest Information Security Maturity Report 2022 published by ClubCISO, explores the hopes, challenges, opportunities, and frustrations of information security leaders.

Culture

Over the years, broader cybersecurity awareness has been growing, with the executives and stakeholders of today focusing on the value of instilling a security-first attitude at all levels. With organizations paying closer attention to their security culture, there has also been a noticeable, positive shift in security culture. Over 65% of the CISOs surveyed this year reported that their organizational security culture was making good progress or was on par with best practices. Leadership endorsement and simulated phishing were found to have been the most beneficial exercises for fostering this positive security culture. Additionally, the ‘proactive (report it) no blame’ policy – encouraging employees to report errors, such as clicking on a malicious link – has fueled remarkable advancements, incentivizing productive security advancements without hassle.

The pandemic-induced shift to remote/hybrid working has been widely recognized as a landmark event for digital security. As it opened up organizations to a host of new security challenges, the strategic value of the CISO grew. Thus, resulting in CISOs retaining or extending their influence within their organizations. Nearly half of CISOs report that the shift has brought about positive changes to security attitudes as well.

When security leaders were asked about the biggest challenges to achieving their goals, the (Read more...)