4 Ways CEOs Can Get Proactive About Cybersecurity
Cybercrimes and data breaches present a real threat to businesses, and yet many remain ill-equipped to prevent or respond to them.
In fact, there were over 490 million ransomware attacks in 2022. And according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Report for 2022, total losses from reported cybercrime attacks rose to a staggering $10.3 billion — a 49% increase from 2021.
Many businesses fail to see cybersecurity as an asset, even though the costs of a cyberattack can be substantial, affecting both your bottom line and your reputation. While you may not see that impact directly on profit and loss statements, investing in avoiding attacks still saves your business money.
Cybersecurity often becomes an afterthought, with many executives failing to understand or seriously consider the effects of a cyberattack. For CEOs, here are four ways you can eliminate that complacency and start being proactive in your cybersecurity efforts:
1. Create a robust security culture
Cybersecurity impacts all aspects of your business, so don’t leave it siloed in IT.
While there are technical solutions that require IT professionals, aspects such as determining the cybersecurity risks involved in your products or services, data management and how you interact with suppliers and customers are business decisions.
By incorporating cybersecurity concerns as part of your organization-wide culture, the people involved in those vital decisions will be better able to manage risks.
It’s also important to increase your business’s security awareness.
Hackers frequently use social engineering techniques — such as phishing attacks through email, smishing attacks through text messages and vishing attacks through phone calls and voicemail — to steal information. To prevent these, ensure that your team is informed about these threats and knows how to identify potential attacks.
Educate your employees on best practices for things like password hygiene and keep them up to date on data safety strategies. You can also increase buy-in by sharing the reasoning behind your protocols instead of taking a more rigid approach.
2. Establish executive oversight
Building support for your cybersecurity strategy requires you to understand and address the concerns of all the main players. If your budget allows it, hiring a chief information security officer (CISO) on a fractional or full-time basis can help make that possible.
A CISO can help you assess cybersecurity risks and implement the appropriate controls across your organization. They can also handle reporting to the board and executives about any potential risks or issues.
If you can’t get access to a CISO, you can still start by treating cybersecurity as a business risk and not just an IT issue.
3. Develop a multilayer security strategy
A multilayer security strategy is the best way to help your organization resist attacks.
Some foundational safeguards you can practice include:
Strengthening password protocols: Help enable your employees to create good passwords.
Incorporating multifactor authentication (MFA): With MFA, users are required to verify their identity by completing an extra step whenever they log in to an app or system.
Improving email protection: The right tech can help you limit phishing attempts and reduce your social engineering risks.
Enhancing vulnerability management: Make it more challenging for cybercriminals to find gaps in your security by regularly updating software, applying security patches and removing any unnecessary or unused software and system processes.
Performing recovery testing: You don’t want to wait until after a cyberattack or network failure to realize that you don’t have a way to restore important files. Perform regular backup process testing so that you can be confident in your recovery.
Performing regular vulnerability scans and penetration testing: Regular monitoring is crucial in understanding your vulnerabilities and how to address them. Conducting quarterly or monthly vulnerability scanning on your internal systems and penetration testing on your external systems can help you identify any weaknesses.
Having air-gapped backups and segmented networks: Make sure that backup files are stored via a standalone network and need separate credentials to access. If you can browse them directly on your primary network, then they’re not safe.
Incorporating endpoint detection and response (EDR): EDR provides real-time visibility into any malicious activity in computer memory, increasing your detection capabilities.
4. Track and measure KPIs
Establishing how you measure performance is critical to being able to evaluate whether your cybersecurity practices are effective.
You may already be tracking data such as how many cybersecurity incidents occurred within a given time — but while these metrics are important, they can’t tell you if your strategies are working. A better KPI would be to look at how long it takes your team to resolve an incident after it’s detected, and if that interval met expectations.
Make sure that the people accountable for cybersecurity are not just tracking activity, but also evaluating performance, to see if your business is achieving its desired cybersecurity outcomes.
Next steps
Many businesses aren’t adequately prepared for cyberattacks — even companies that have recently experienced a data breach. As CEO, you’re positioned to bring cybersecurity to the forefront of your business goals. Don’t be afraid to reach out to cybersecurity professionals for assistance with anything from implementing multilayer security strategies to identifying the best KPIs to track and measure.