FINAL WORD

The stakes have never been higher for CISOs to foster seamless , cross-functional alignment across their C-suite and Board and if not , they can potentially be held liable for it . However , generating collective buyin amongst stakeholders with varying priorities and business objectives is far easier said than done , says Frank Kim at SANS Institute .

In 2023 , the charges against Joseph Sullivan , Uber and Timothy G . Brown , SolarWinds set a new precedent for corporate responsibility on matters of cybersecurity . Both landmark cases exemplified the consequences of inaction on new cyber mandates like the Securities and Exchange Commission , SEC regulations , Biden Administration Executive Order and NIS2 Directive , among other global measures .

The stakes have never been higher for CISOs to foster seamless cross-functional alignment on cyber risk mitigation and compliance across their C-suite and Board . If not , they potentially can be held liable for it . Except as we have encountered time after time , generating collective buy-in amongst stakeholders with varying priorities and business objectives is far easier said than done .

Evolving threat actor tactics , techniques , and procedures , leveraging new nextgeneration technologies have enhanced the sophistication of traditional cyberattacks – increasing urgency for CISOs to implement resilient cyber defence strategies .

However , an experience shortage driven by understaffing and evolving skill requirements is making that difficult to accomplish . There are more than 4 million unfilled security jobs in the world today , and research indicates that most security professionals believe the skills shortage ’ s impact has worsened over the past two years .

74 INTELLIGENTCIO AFRICA www . intelligentcio . com