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Top 9 Questions CIOs Should be Prepared to Answer About Cybersecurity Readiness
With the threat landscape evolving to be more dangerous and sophisticated, board members may wonder where their own organizations stand when it comes to cybersecurity readiness against threats such as ransomware and data breaches. After all, board members have a duty to ensure their organization protects itself against cyberattacks and accidental data leaks.
Here’s a list of questions CIOs should be prepared to answer to ensure the organization is making the right strategic investments in cybersecurity.
Questions for CIOs about cybersecurity readiness
1. Have we prioritized our objectives and our risks?
Risks are uncertainties about outcomes. Risks matter most when they pertain to the outcomes an organization prioritizes. Is there a risk management practice in place that identifies its highest-level objectives? For most organizations, those objectives will include:
- Business continuity
- Data confidentiality, integrity, and availability (data “CIA”)
- Regulatory comp
2. Have we identified the IT resources and processes that support our objectives?
Besides identifying key objectives, an organization needs to identify the IT resources and processes that support those objectives. For example, if business continuity depends on an eCommerce website, which IT assets, processes and teams does that website depend on? What are its most valuable assets? Do they include intellectual property, financial data, physical infrastructure, or something else? Where are those assets stored, and who has access to them?
3. Have we identified the risks associated with each of those IT resources and processes?
Board members and the executive team need to understand what makes the IT resources, processes and teams supporting each key objective vulnerable to attack. Unpatched software? Unreliable hardware? Lack of training? Have governments or industry groups adopted new regulations that will require redesigning and redeploying software and hardware?
4. Have we assessed the likelihood of these risks?
If the organization estimates the odds of a data breach to be just 1%, that’s too low to be realistic. If the odds are 80%, then it isn’t making the right investments in cybersecurity. What is our confidence level in our cybersecurity posture, and how does that compare to those of our peers? Has the organization assessed the combined likelihood and severity of each risk, so that risks can be compared and prioritized?
5. Have we developed a software Bill of Materials (SBOM) for all our key applications and software services?
An SBOM is a catalog of all the software components and their versions that goes into an application or software service. By compiling SBOMs, organizations make it much easier to identify applications and services that are at risk when new vulnerabilities are announced, such as the Log4j vulnerability that was announced in December 2021. Has the organization begun the practice of automatically compiling SBOMs for key applications and services? What’s the plan for doing so? How far along is the process now? How is this work being automated so it’s always up to date?
6. Do we have a real-time inventory of all our IT assets, including laptops, desktops, servers, and IoT devices?
You can’t secure something if you don’t know you have it. An organization needs a comprehensive inventory of all its IT assets as part of its cybersecurity program and recognize that this inventory changes continually. How are we compiling this inventory? How regularly is it updated? How are we determining that it really is complete and accurate
7. Have you identified likely adversaries and their goals?
Doing this helps an organization focus its investments on cybersecurity. Are there specific parties such as cybercriminal gangs, nation-states or activists who are likely to attack us? If so, what are their goals? Are they hoping to steal information, inflict a ransomware attack and demand funds, cause mayhem, or somehow damage the organization’s brand? How is this knowledge shaping our cybersecurity strategy?
8. How are we prioritizing our spending on risk?
Trying to eliminate all risks would be cost-prohibitive. How are we prioritizing our investments? Who is involved in making decisions about spending? How often are those decisions reviewed and, if necessary, adjusted?
9. What plans do we have in place to mitigate risks if attacks or other undesirable outcomes occur?
Do we have teams ready to respond to our most serious risks? Are communication channels in place? Do team members have the tools they need to act quickly and effectively? Have teams practiced responses to attacks to ensure that people, processes and tools are ready for action?
Learn how Tanium can help you make the right strategic cybersecurity investments here.
