Starting From the Top

By TraceSecurity
December 17, 2024

In the modern landscape, CEOs play a pivotal role in securing their organizations’ infrastructure, data, and personnel. As cyberthreats grow increasingly sophisticated, the responsibility of safeguarding sensitive data and maintaining robust cybersecurity measures falls heavily on the shoulders of executive leadership. A recent survey by Fortra indicated that 46% of companies have identified increased CEO support as a major driver of cybersecurity. Because of this, it is important that the organization’s approach start from the top. This article will go over the most critical aspects of CEO leadership in information security, highlighting these key areas: security-first culture and risk awareness.

Security-First Culture

According to a Data Breach Investigations Report from Verizon , email is the most common vector for malware. When delivered via email, who do you think clicks them? Employees. Fostering a security-first culture within the organization ensures that its employees understand their role in protection information and assets. As a leader in your company, you are responsible for providing the resources – employees, funding, approval, and support – for this culture to begin. The saying “it starts from the top” applies realistically here. So, what can you do to start building a security-first culture?

Regular Training and Awareness Programs

Provide continuous education at all levels of the organization on basic information security fundaments and trending attacks. Additionally, conduct regular (at least quarterly) tests of your employees. Common tests include phishing campaigns, security-based quizzes, and physical social engineering exercises.

Policies and Procedures

Well-defined policies provide a framework for expected behavior. At a minimum, you should establish an acceptable use policy and information security policy. These policies dictate what should and shouldn’t be done with information assets and the organization’s approach to protecting them.

Executive and Board Involvement

Executive and board-level support is crucial for driving a security-aware culture across the organization. So, ensure that cybersecurity is a regular agenda item in executive conversations. Employees will often look at the practices of leaders in the company and try to mimic them.

Risk Awareness

Fostering risk awareness within an organization is crucial. As reported by Gartner, world-wide spending on security and risk management is projected to total $215 billion in 2024. . This increase in spending proves that security and risk should be at the core of any business. Understanding and managing potential threats enables employees to proactively mitigate risks and protect the company’s assets. Here are key components of cultivating risk awareness:

Risk Identification

The only way to identify risks is to perform regular (at least annual) risk assessments. These assessments help identify vulnerabilities and potential threats. You can’t react to something you do not know about in the first place. Common frameworks utilized as a base for these assessments are National Institutes of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework (NIST CSF), and, more specifically to financial institutions, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council’s (FFIEC) IT Booklets.

Risk Management

Once you have identified the risks your business faces, what should you do next? You should manage them. There are multiple ways you can manage risk – accept, transfer, avoid, or mitigate. The ideal response is mitigation. Implementing effective risk mitigation strategies can help you reduce the impact of identified risks.

Conclusion

Of course, there are many other important aspects of information security that could have been included, but it is most important to start by creating a security-aware culture, and then follow with risk awareness. Establishing these two is a sound base to build from and expand into other areas, such as incident response, business continuity, disaster recovery, security testing, and more.

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About TraceSecurity

TraceSecurity has provided over 30,000 examiner approved reports, helping credit unions of all sizes maintain compliance year after year. A CUNA Strategic Services provider since 2006, TraceSecurity helps credit unions with a range of cybersecurity services, including risk assessments, penetration testing and IT audits. With a combination of software and services, TraceSecurity can help credit unions manage their information security program and supplement it with third-party validation.