News

img

Cybersecurity Questions Executives Need to Ask

Effective cybersecurity starts at the top with executives who ask the right questions.

Cybersecurity has moved far beyond safeguarding data alone to take a central position in our business strategies. Risk, reputation, and continuity depend on a business’s cybersecurity approach. Executives must develop and maintain an accurate picture of their organizations’ threats to secure business processes linked with supply chains, fulfillment processes, remote operations, and more. They need to be knowledgeable advocates for cybersecurity within their organizations, employing a top-down leadership strategy to create a company culture that values security.

 

Cybersecurity requires organizational and technical solutions. A multi-layered approach helps executives and IT experts focus on their shared goals of safeguarding systems and maximizing business continuity. Layered protective measures employing policy, processes, controls, and institutional tools protect different attack vectors. Executives and business leaders can set a higher bar for prioritizing security culture by asking the right questions.

 

Questions Executives Need to Ask

Ensure your entire team knows how your organization is managing cybersecurity by asking these questions.

 

How are we prepared to evolve to meet emerging threats?

IT security should be an ongoing initiative with a cybersecurity framework that can adapt to new threats and scale with your organization. Integrating security strategies into every department is crucial to preventing advanced cyber threats. In addition to streamlining IT procedures, you will decrease risk and cost over the long term and move toward shared long-term business goals as a company.

 

What layers of protection have we established?

Multiple layers of defense, procedures, and policies are your best protection. For instance, a good cybersecurity plan requires your organization to agree on your most important assets and their necessary level of security within your multi-layered strategy. Accordingly, define what layers are in place and how effectively they protect your business.

 

How do we detect and respond to a breach?

Do not wait until a breach to start planning how to respond. Instead, a detailed response plan is vital. Above all, your organization needs to decide upon your risk tolerance so you will know when and how to respond. Who are the incident response team leaders, and how will they react? Which parties must be notified, and how?

 

How are we fostering cybersecurity culture?

If the board undermines security policies, it deprives companies of the most critical source of protection: engaged employees. Conversely, creating a security culture encourages people to report issues to IT faster, to be mindful of phishing scams and other malware traps, to take password security seriously, and to avoid careless errors that weaken defenses.

 

How can we maximize the returns on our cybersecurity investments?

Leveraging cybersecurity investments to enhance security and operations requires leadership awareness. Evaluate your level of protection and risk tolerance before you allocate any investments. Undoubtedly, spending money alone will not secure any organization, but intelligent decisions will align your budget with your conditions. Particularly, risk-based assessments, maturity reviews, and penetration tests or advanced persistent threat (APT) simulations are worthwhile investments to expose vulnerabilities and help you institute strong controls to minimize risk and achieve compliance.

 

Conclusion

In summary, Cybersecurity threats grow at the same speed as technological innovations, if not faster. Cybersecurity questions Executives need to ask are about leading your organization through these cascading challenges with an approach that can outpace them all. For this reason, Executives must take on more accountability than ever before to oversee and prioritize cybersecurity risks.

Need help managing your cybersecurity risk concerns? Contact Securance for a free consultation.