The CISO Evolution

CHAPTER 7Translating Cyber Risk into Business Risk

A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for.

— John A. Shedd

Opportunity

If anything resonates with the C-suite and the board, it's the Almighty Dollar in both making it (revenue) and saving it (reducing costs/operational efficiency).

Technology adoption brings about a tremendous growth opportunity for businesses (e.g., revenue). According to the World Economic Council, more than 50% of the world's population is now online, approximately one million people go online for the first time, ever, each day, and two-thirds of the global population own a mobile device.¹ Additionally, technology adoption can reduce costs by automating existing manual processes, enable mobility so that an employee is no longer chained to their desk, and reduce human error.

Now, couple technology adoption by organizations with the rapidly increasing cyber threat landscape. Per IBM, the average cost of a data breach in 2020 is $3.86 million.² In their annual 2021 Data Breach and Investigation Report, Verizon identified that external attackers accounted for about 80% of breaches, which is up from 70% in 2020.³ This statistic goes against conventional wisdom that the internal threat is the largest cyber threat an organization faces; however, that is not to say that external attackers did not use unknowing internal employees or contractors to help their cause. 2020 will forever be known as the year of the COVID-19 global pandemic. The ...