Published Oct 20, 2021

Top 5 Things All CISOs Worry About

What are CISOs spending their time worrying about? What are the tops things that challenge protecting information? Information Intelligence for better information protection - With Cognni.

For a CISO the stress of ensuring that their company’s information is safe while workflows aren’t interrupted means that most of them never get a good night’s sleep. It’s a job that if done well the success looks invisible and is hard to quantify. You may be wondering what are the real challenges keeping CISOs up at night  

1. Cyber Attacks 

Hackers are broadening their skills. Attackers are capable of bypassing firewalls and cybersecurity measures at a much faster pace than ever before. Sec Ops/InfoSec teams have their hands full and don’t have the time to keep up with every new trend in information security, making systems more susceptible to attacks. Combining that with the rising number of cyberattacks and a growing number of cybercriminals looking to make a profit, a perfect storm is created. That alone is enough to keep a CISO up at night.  

2. Staff 

Most organizations have small InfoSec or SecOps teams. This often translates into overloaded workers, especially in the post-pandemic world where cloud collaboration and remote work have become the norm. Having a great team, quantity, and quality-wise can help mitigate the effects of a leak or data breach, which is beneficial in lightening the CISO’s workload. Unfortunately, most organizations don’t have enough dedicated workers to deal with the volume of work that protecting information now requires. 

3. Human Error 

Most critical information is leaked by accident. Exposure of information is seldom the result of malicious activity, but more so due to negligence. But that doesn’t mean that the CISO isn’t liable. If someone carelessly accesses and shares an organization’s critical information, that exposure can put the whole company and the CISO’s position in jeopardy. 

4. Ever-Changing Regulations 

The laws and regulations related to information security change frequently. CISOs face added pressure from compliance officers, Legal and HR departments to ensure the company meets compliance standards.  

These regulations are often complex and take a significant amount of time to adhere to. CISOs are already stretched for time but need to stay informed of the latest regulations for data security. With the ever-changing nature of regulations, CISOs are often tasked with reconfiguring their existing InfoSec configuration to comply with new standards.  

5. Budget Constraints 

Although companies are more aware of digital threats than ever before, increasing the budget for information and cyber security tools isn’t always a top priority because it doesn’t show an obvious return on investment. This leaves CISOs trying to fulfil impossible expectations with a limited budget. That said, most company decision-makers fail to grasp how expensive a data breach or unwanted information exposure can be without having invested in the proper protection tools.  

How to get a peaceful night’s sleep 

At the end of the day the CISO is the front-line for an organization’s information security. The first step is to have an understanding of what information their company holds and whether it’s critical. And this is where automation and Cognni comes into play: by having AI technology take care of information mapping, CISOs free up their over-stretched schedules while also ensuring the difficult balance of maintaining security without compromising productivity is met.  

Top 5 things all CISOs worry about - Chief Information Security Officer - before they have embraced information intelligence.