Business Leaders Need to Own Cyber Security

Corporate cybersecurity requires a business leader to make the decisions, be personally invested, and lead the security work the same way as the business. The intent and guidance of the business leaders need to be visible. 

In reality, this is usually not the case. Consultants and IT staff often receivehave more degrees of freedom than they needed. Business leaders rely on IT staff and security consultants to "protect us from cyberattacks." The risk is obvious – IT staff and consultants are not running the business, they lack complete understanding of its strategy and direction, and they therefore are unable to prioritize the protection of the information assets within the business as a whole.

Information security has a few foundational pieces, and they play together in the same general way during risk assessment and mitigation: Information resources are classified according to their importance to the business, an acceptable level of risk is established for the company, and then security solutions are developed to mitigate risk down to an acceptable level. These mitigation strategies are well-designed when they’re implemented with minimal disruption to the business and its workflows. Finally, the information security program ensures that information and functionality can be restored after an incident as part of the process. 

These basic steps may sound like an elementary exercise – something that consultants can solve quickly – but the central question is risk appetite, the acceptance to take an understood risk, which can jeopardize the entire business if too high or too low. What is the wrong level of risk appetite? The business's IT operations are prepared to take risks that the business management did not even dare to dream of or, conversely, the IT systems will slow down the business, stand in the way, and the failure to prioritize due to risk aversion. Risk, which is central to information security, can only be controlled by the business leader. IT staff and consultants can be advisors, produce information, and sketch solutions, but the decision is a business decision. What risk we are prepared to take cannot be an open issue, and shouldn’t be left to arbitrary interpretation. 

Just as the management has influences and controls what is an acceptable risk when information security is structured, management is central when things go wrong. A business management team that is not involved in information security, and fails to gain a conceptual understanding of risk management, will be too slow to act in a crisis. Cyberattacks and data failures occur daily. The financial market, customers, government authorities, and owners rightly expect these damages to be dealt with quickly and efficiently. Confusion when a major cyber crisis occurs, by attack or mistake, will undermine confidence in the business at a very high rate. In a matter of hours, a trust that has taken decades to build can be wiped out. In the digital economy, trust is the same as revenue and long-term customer relationships. Business management that lacks an understanding of how cyber security is structured for their business, at a managerial level, has not made the intellectual journey of prioritizing and will not lead or have relevant influence in a crisis.  

Managers have premium pay and are recruited because they have experience, insight, and character to navigate when a crisis hits and is challenging. If the business management cannot lead when the business is under major cyberattacks, then management has left it to the IT staff and consultants to lead the business.         

In a smaller and medium-sized business, the need for committed business management is reinforced because the threat of long-term damage from a cyberattack is greater. A public company can absorb the damage, which smaller players often in niche industries cannot do in the same way. 

If business management can engage in sustainability and the climate threat, as many do with both energy and interest, the step of engaging in vulnerability and the cyber threat should not be that far to go. The survival of the business will always be a business decision.