Within the security world, it’s important to be ready for change at any moment. If you’re an executive, you may be thinking: What can I do to establish a positive security-first brand for employees and customers, and how can I build trust and improve my security program’s maturity?
It’s becoming increasingly obvious that implementing a security-oriented strategy that closely aligns with business goals and risks is the way to go.
Bold and modern tech solutions make claims of increased productivity, efficiency and speed for security leaders and practitioners, among other things. So far, there’s some truth to that. However, rapid digital transformation is often accompanied by security concerns.
According to a survey conducted by Salt Security, a staggering 89% of CISOs claim that their rapid deployment of digital services has produced unexpected cybersecurity risks. Similarly, in a PwC 2023 Global Digital Trust Insights Survey, less than 40% of senior executives claimed to have fully mitigated the cybersecurity risks that occurred after bold technology adoption.
But cybersecurity should be a business enabler, not a prohibitor. And there are steps that security leaders and business executives can take to build resilience and trust so that business objectives can be achieved, all while staying secure and prepared for what may lie ahead. There’s no single, straightforward path towards cybersecurity resilience. It’s a reality that CISOs and CEOs alike are dealing with on a daily basis. So, what can be done?
Enter the Cyber-resilience C-suite Team
For starters, every C-suite executive should embrace cybersecurity. That means from the start that all executives should hold some form of accountability, whether security is in the title or not. Effective cybersecurity practices are a crucial part of any business and play a role in an organization’s ability to function safely and effectively, and leaders who establish objectives and responsibilities pave the way for a strong cybersecurity resilience.
According to Accenture, “Cyber-resilient CEOs are far more likely to commit to continually establishing industry-leading cybersecurity measures…and align with C-suite priorities in order to protect the business and detect and respond effectively to cyberattacks.”
It’s important for organizations to stay ahead of the game and explore new technologies that could further business success. Establishing effective cybersecurity solutions and measures can further drive digital transformation. CEOs should understand that cybersecurity needs to be involved in every aspect of a business and thankfully, many are catching on. When everyone has a role to play and executes it accordingly, digital transformation can accelerate safely.
Address Slow, Outdated and Ineffective Security Tools and Solutions
It can be hard to shake a security testing methodology that’s familiar, but emerging technologies are showing their weaknesses and shortcomings. The solutions that C-suite executives help adopt should be a direct reflection of their unique risk. If an organization’s existing security tools and solutions are proving to be slow and ineffective, it may be time to switch things up for the better.
Your security testing needs to be as modern as the other aspects of your IT infrastructure, and some security testing solutions only get organizations so far (or sometimes nowhere). It can be difficult to usher in change, but traditional pentesting doesn’t scale, can’t possess a variety of skill sets and fails to produce actionable testing results to name a few. It was mainly established as an avenue to check for compliance requirements, like NIST SP 800-53 and PCI DSS. Unfortunately, this method isn’t built to deal with today’s security challenges.
Similarly, automated scanners can be noisy, time consuming and only produce low-quality vulnerabilities that often show duplications. There are some instances where these solutions make do, but any well-established organizations or business that’s dealing with a large attack surface and many critical assets in different locations should acknowledge that there are better, more effective solutions on the market.
Cyber resilient C-suites are switching to solutions that address top-of-mind security challenges and align in asset risk. Removing solutions that hold an organization back and prohibit meaningful results is pivotal in achieving cyber resilience.
Bridge the Cyber Talent Gap
Most organizations today are feeling the effects of the cyber talent shortage. It may sound obvious, but it’s important to set aside resources and budget to find solutions that can address and ease this very real issue that CISOs around the world are dealing with. Realistically, it’s hard to find a “unicorn” candidate, which means that most C-suites should look to automated certain areas and outsource others.
An Accenture statistic claims that nearly 64% of CEOs who embrace cyber resilience plan to upskill or reskill their security workforce within the next few years. It can be difficult to find exactly what an organization needs, but striving for cybersecurity talent that’s diverse is key when tackling an expanding attack surface and a variety of different assets and concerns.
The Synack Platform: A Step In the Right Direction for Cyber Resilience
Achieving cybersecurity resilience cannot happen overnight. It should be a well thought out and discussed plan and goal for all C-suite executives depending on a variety of factors.
The Synack Platform helps organizations achieve cybersecurity resilience in a multitude of ways.The platform harnesses the power of over 1,500 elite security researchers that use their unique skill sets to discover exploitable vulnerabilities at scale.
Providing continuous security testing with vulnerability management, we help our customers build and augment their security testing capabilities while helping them pinpoint why certain vulnerabilities are popping up. Our customers benefit from full vulnerability triage, 24/7 customer support, real-time analytics and reporting capabilities and more, all on one platform.
If your organization is looking to improve its security maturity and solutions to work towards resiliency, contact us today.
