Why Growing Cyberthreat Awareness Among CEOs Could Lead to Bigger Security Budgets

Recent data revealed that CEOs are now putting fears about cyberthreats ahead of traditional business concerns, such as an increasing tax burden and the availability of key skills. This shift in priorities may help IT professionals make a stronger business case for more substantial security budgets — a challenge for many C-suite leaders in recent years.

Cyberthreat Awareness on the Rise Among CEOs

Executives around the world have become more aware of the cyberthreat landscape as technology has grown more pervasive in the enterprise. A new survey of global CEOs ranked cyberthreats among the top five most significant impediments to business growth. In North America, CEOs listed IT security as a top priority, with 53 percent of executives reporting that they were “extremely concerned” about cyberthreats.

These findings from consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) indicate that C-suite executives might be warming up to the idea of allocating more resources for security. While the 2017 study placed cyberthreats at number 10 on the list of impediments to business growth, this concern took the fourth spot in 2018.

Now Is the Time to Push for Bigger Security Budgets

The new data suggests that security leaders should consider reframing their requests to business leaders for more resources to fend off malware, social engineering and other cyberthreats. For example, chief information security officers (CISOs) can get board directors’ attention by focusing on the three R’s — reputation, regulation and revenue — and referring to news headlines to communicate the negative impact of a data breach from a business perspective.

Security leaders can also gain executive buy-in by understanding the organization’s business priorities and explaining how a greater investment in security can help the company achieve those goals. Also, conveying security data in a framework that board directors are used to seeing — such as a risk heat map — can help business leaders better understand the return on investment (ROI) of security investments.

The PwC data shows that CEOs are finally beginning to see the connection between cybersecurity and long-term business growth. For security leaders whose requests for more budget had previously fallen on deaf ears, now is the time to approach the C-suite and make a strong business case for more significant investment in cybersecurity.

Shane Schick

Writer & Editor

NIST’s role in the global tech race against AI

4 min read - Last year, the United States Secretary of Commerce announced that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been put in charge of launching a new public working group on artificial intelligence (AI) that will build on the success of the NIST AI Risk Management Framework to address this rapidly advancing technology.However, recent budget cuts at NIST, along with a lack of strategy implementation, have called into question the agency’s ability to lead this critical effort. Ultimately, the success…

Researchers develop malicious AI ‘worm’ targeting generative AI systems

2 min read - Researchers have created a new, never-seen-before kind of malware they call the "Morris II" worm, which uses popular AI services to spread itself, infect new systems and steal data. The name references the original Morris computer worm that wreaked havoc on the internet in 1988.The worm demonstrates the potential dangers of AI security threats and creates a new urgency around securing AI models.New worm utilizes adversarial self-replicating promptThe researchers from Cornell Tech, the Israel Institute of Technology and Intuit, used what’s…

Passwords, passkeys and familiarity bias

5 min read - As passkey (passwordless authentication) adoption proceeds, misconceptions abound. There appears to be a widespread impression that passkeys may be more convenient and less secure than passwords. The reality is that they are both more secure and more convenient — possibly a first in cybersecurity.Most of us could be forgiven for not realizing passwordless authentication is more secure than passwords. Thinking back to the first couple of use cases I was exposed to — a phone operating system (OS) and a…

Security Intelligence

{{title}}

{{title}}

{{title}}

Topics

Cyberthreat Awareness on the Rise Among CEOs

Now Is the Time to Push for Bigger Security Budgets

More from

NIST’s role in the global tech race against AI

Researchers develop malicious AI ‘worm’ targeting generative AI systems

Passwords, passkeys and familiarity bias

Topic updates