$7.35 million is the average total cost of a cyber attack in the United States. Is your business effectively mitigating its risk? As budgeting for next year begins, placing cybersecurity as a priority within the process is vital to the growth and success of your company.
One of the biggest challenges to budgeting for security is getting C-level executives and IT decision makers on the same page.
The differing priorities of C-level and IT teams often cause opposing views of cyber threats and how they convert to business vs. technological risks. While C-level executives are responsible for reducing business risk, IT manages and maintains the technology that drives the business and its risk. A recent global survey of C-level executives and IT professionals found large disconnects regarding the impacts of an attack, including areas of responsibility and overall costs. Here are some of the most notable:
- 80% of executives believe implementing effective cybersecurity can be a challenge for their business. Alternatively, only 50% of IT professionals share the same view.
- When estimating the costs of a cyber breach, executives come in lower than the average at $5.9 million, while IT professionals drastically overestimate at $27.2 million.
- Another significant point of difference is their beliefs in what causes a successful attack. 50% of executive respondents believe breaches are caused by people, not systems, while only 31% of IT decision makers agree that human error is the cause.
Protelligent® understands the challenges of aligning C-Level executives and IT. Here are 3 ways our Premonition Security™ Suite will help you bridge the gaps:
Assessment
Directly involving executives in your company’s incident-response exercises will give them a greater understanding of their part in the response, as well as all the possible impacts of a data breach. Simulated attacks provide executives with valuable firsthand experience and can be the catalyst to a security-driven focus that starts at the top.Premonition’s assessment services measure your organization’s cyber-attack resiliency, create actionable security remediation prioritized by risk and value and provide recommendations to elevate your cyber defense. Our certified engineers and security executives will coordinate with you to simulate tactics, techniques and procedures of real-world attackers with penetration testing. This will allow us to discover critical vulnerabilities to remediate before they can be leveraged against you.
Awareness
Ensuring both groups and all employees are educated and aware of their organization’s responsibility for the compromise and misuse of sensitive data during a data breach is crucial to protecting your business.Organizational awareness can easily be gained through Premonition’s Learning Management System-as-a-Service. We offer a full range of threat-awareness training and managed content courses that help your entire organization stay current with the latest cybersecurity information.
vCISO
Implementing and running an effective security program requires a C-level executive capable of assessing needs, managing security protocol and responding effectively to changes in security and compliance. Employing an individual with the necessary skills and expertise to meet these requirements, while productively engaging the two groups is often financially out of reach for most small and medium-sized businesses.Premonition Security Suite includes the services of a virtual chief information security officer (vCISO). This C-level information security consultant will offer the guidance needed to elevate your cybersecurity position. Our dedicated professionals execute the security program identified during assessment and manage key initiatives to reach desired results. In addition to having on-demand access to a senior information security executive, you receive ongoing customized risk-mitigation guidance and routine compliance and security reporting.
Effective Cybersecurity Solution
Finding a solution that proactively resolves concerns and unites C-level executives and IT decision makers is the key to implementing an effective cybersecurity program that protects your organization against cyber attacks. Contact us today at (855) PRO-TELL to learn more about how Protelligent’s Premonition Security Suite can level the playing field for your company and create a competitive advantage.
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