Cyber Defense eMagazine June 2020 Edition

This concept of making security features more prominent could also help to play an important role in
building a stronger culture of security within an organization. A key challenge experienced by many
CISO’s we interact with. Jim Rutt, CISO at the Dana Foundation, a participant in this research report and
stated “CISO’s need to ensure that with every initiative, whether that be digital transformation or new
applications being rolled out, they make the security features and ‘asks’ prominent within the project.
Raise awareness of where the issues exist and where the gaps could be exposed.” To maintain a holistic
security posture, it is going to be essential to create this level of collective commitment and focus.
The carrot of an enhanced value proposition also needs to be balanced with the stick of protecting
business operations as the attack surface increases in light of COVID-19 related events. CISO’s surveyed
in the Cyber Security in Focus 2020 research suggested that they felt investment decisions would largely
be driven by the stick (57%) and it’s important to keep this balance of risk and reward in mind when
dealing with the board.
Ultimately, strategy execution is going to be key. According to the research, the largest single barrier to
delivering on cyber security initiatives is internal skills (39% of respondents felt this way). A significant
percentage of CISO’s (76%) are still reporting a shortage of talent within their businesses with some 72%
struggling to source cyber security candidates. Will candidate availability improve as a result of COVID-
19? Certainly, there may be more candidates on the market, but we are seeing businesses be very
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