CEOs are now beginning to understand the severity and magnitude of the threat that a cyberattack poses to their business. They want to make their business cybersecure. The following realisation appeared due to cost of cybercrime exceeding over $1 trillion. As a result, CEOs are dramatically stepping up their digitization efforts. More than 77% of CEOs will increase their technology investment according to PwCs Annual CEO Survey. This is fairly good progress. However, why has it taken this long for businesses to get to this point? And how do these organizations ramp up their digital investments while keeping their information systems and networks safe?
Since 2015, cybercrime has topped the list of CEOs top concerns. We spoke about this in our earlier post. Cyberthreats moved to the second position during 2021. Recently, the pandemic and other health crisis overtook cyberthreats. However, in North America, cybersecurity is still a CEOs number one concern.
PwC 24th Annual Global Survey, 2021
In an ironic twist, the onset of the Pandemic helped increase the level of cybercrime. As a result, CEOs in North America are feeling the urgency to address these threats. Because, malicious actors continue to take advantage of the vulnerabilities created or exacerbated by the pandemic.
In the US, nearly 70% of CEOs said they are “extremely concerned” about cyberattacks.
Money is not the Answer
The onslaught of pandemic immediately alerted global CEOs on the need for information security. Over half of the global CEOs responded by increasing their digitization investment budget to double-digit figures for the next three years. While only 31% committed to increasing their cyber and privacy investments. This is a concern. After all, the cybercrime economy is fuelled by digitization.
PwC 24th Annual Global Survey, 2021
The importance of cyber spending falling in line with overall business strategy
However, money is not the only measure of a cybersecurity program’s effectiveness. More isn’t always better. It can be worse, if the cybersecurity spending is taken as a piecemeal without having an underlying strategy to guide it.
Enticed by vendor pitches, CEOs often fall into the trap of buying one solution after another in a bid to solve the cybersecurity conundrum with money. Thus, they often end up with a tangled mess of products and services that don’t work together and their staff does not know how to use effectively.
Many tech and security executives – 53% – say they’re not confident that their cyber budgets mesh with the strategy of the enterprise and its business units, per PwC’s 2021 Global Digital Trust Insights survey They also aren’t sure that their organizations’ cyber spending really addresses the risks the company faces and uses solid data as a basis for setting priorities. It appears many organiations are realizing the confusion exists and working to resolve it as 44% said they were planning a cyber budget overhaul and improving cyber-risk quantification.
To meet the challenges of 2021 and beyond, you need to work with your Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to ensure that cyber spending falls in line with an overarching strategy – and that your programme is streamlined and simple. Today’s CISO is part transformational leader and part master tactician, and under your direction, they can guide cross-functional teams to ensure that security solutions and systems work together gracefully and effectively to protect the entire enterprise.
What you can do
Your ultimate driver for decision making should be how you plan to grow your organization including your technology. Cybersecurity strategies work best when the CISO crafting them fully understands their company’s goals, plans, and business objectives.
With a good understanding of your vision and your company’s business strategy, your CISO can help you fully comprehend and mitigate the cyber-risks your organization faces. And your CISO will be able to strike a better balance between complexity and simplicity.
What if you don’t have a CISO
That is where we come in. CSG Technologies is your stand-in partner for all your security needs. We know how to make your business cybersecure. We work with you to understand your business, goals and objective and help you build a security strategy that is cohesive to your business and your budget.
