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The convergence of AI with cybersecurity and the rapid evolution of technology have blurred the boundaries. If there is one certainty, it is that traditional IT problems cannot be ignored. And cybersecurity leaders working to remediate cyber incidents must remain mindful of the importance of keeping IT running, observed a global CIO who spoke at a panel discussion at this year’s GovWare Focus.
The one-day event echoed GovWare 2024’s theme “Securing dynamic digital roadmaps: Relooking signposts in identity, trust, and resilience.” It saw over 150 CISOs and executives gathering to discuss the profound impact of technology, with a lens on the CII sectors, and the evolving roles of cybersecurity leaders.
The Role of the CISO Continues to Evolve
The only constant appears to be change, as the role of the CISO continues to evolve amid the ever-shifting landscape of cyber threats and organisational needs.
“CISOs today must juggle two things, strategic leadership and operations with evolving technology. This is akin to walking on a tightrope, where the CISO’s balance must always be right. If they stumble, they might fall. And if they fall, it might result in civil or even criminal liabilities. So it is a balancing act,” said a group CISO.
“Whether as a CISO or a cybersecurity professional, we have been hired by our organisations to provide options when it comes to technology risks. To do our jobs, we must collaborate across the organisation; the CISO cannot work alone. To do this well, we need to fully understand our stakeholders and their needs.”
The modern CISO must thus find the right balance between agility, compliance, and risk, which will necessarily vary across organisations. Depending on the industry vertical, some can adopt a comparatively riskier approach with their technology strategy, while a cybersecurity leader in the healthcare sector would probably have to be far more conservative.
“I do think innovation is key to finding what that balance is. It's important to continually innovate and strike that balance because it will change. Risk appetites will change; regulations will change,” said the global CIO.
The Rise of Generative AI
What about AI, which has captured the imagination of the world since the release of ChatGPT? As businesses turn to GenAI to improve their productivity and streamline their operations, cybersecurity leaders bear the responsibility of evaluating it from a risk perspective, said one panellist.
Crucially, AI can help improve the operational capabilities of cybersecurity leaders, says a keynote speaker who ticked off several ways that AI can be harnessed to help CISOs work more effectively.
“[How about using] natural language to check if an organisation is PCI-compliant? Such as using a single question that is broken down into 100 different commands to determine compliance. It helps you operationally, so CISOs don’t need 100 IT engineers to do it manually.”
Another way where AI can make its mark is by parsing the huge volume of alerts and information that CISOs review daily, automatically identifying incidents that require urgent attention. Finally, AI can help CISOs better understand the systems deployed in their organisations.
“The CISO knows what the vulnerability is. However, they might not know the systems he has deployed. AI can show them where the vulnerable systems are located. There could be a tool which comes back and produces a list of Log4j systems that are currently in use,” explained the speaker.
Spending on Cybersecurity
While much has changed and continues to evolve in cybersecurity, some things have remained constant. CISOs continue to want their cybersecurity solutions “cheap, good, and fast”, observed one panellist to a wave of audible chuckles across the room.
“The buy side [customers] has very little budget; they want the best products and they want it to solve their immediate problems,” he said. On a more serious note, the panellist advised CISOs to invest in proven technologies.
“Look for solutions that can perform well over the next five, 10 years. That can handle the volume, that can handle the velocity. One of the attributes that I always look for is longevity. If the technology cannot survive, you cannot solve my [problem].”
Regardless of how savvy the CISO is, there is no getting away from the fact that the support of the board is crucial to access the resources – and budget – that cybersecurity leaders need to defend their organisations. Unfortunately, it often appears that a cyber incident serves as the wake-up call before the gravity of the threat landscape is understood and necessary resources are allocated.
“Every cent you spend on insurance is wasted when you are well. But once you fall sick, or anytime there is a cyber incident… even the millions of dollars spent are suddenly not enough,” quipped one panellist to nods from the audience.
Looking Ahead, Doing Better
As cybersecurity continues to grow in importance and visibility, the board is increasingly looking to CISOs to look ahead and advise on future variations of cyber threats and technologies. This means CISOs must adopt a strategic mindset, focusing on long-term resilience and proactive threat management, and less on the next new thing.
“As cybersecurity continues to grow in importance and visibility, the board is increasingly looking to CISOs to look ahead and advise on future variations of cyber threats and technologies. This means CISOs must adopt a strategic mindset, focusing on long-term resilience and proactive threat management, and less on the next “shiny object to buy” – GovWare Focus Panellist.
Lest cybersecurity leaders feel discouraged by the recent global outage, it was observed that it took most organisations mere hours to resolve, unlike a decade-old cyberattack that took months to recover from.
There is always room for improvement, of course. As one cybersecurity leader noted: “[Phishing education] has brought us to a certain point of maturity. But to bring it further down calls for a different approach. A sophisticated attacker will always find a way to get through. And that's something that my internal red team could do – they always found a way to get through.”
Ultimately, CISOs must start thinking seriously about resilience and not consider it an IT problem. In the words of the global CIO: “Resiliency is not just an IT problem. Security has a part to play and you need to work together with your IT ops to ensure the resilience of your systems. Do you have a deliberate strategy to ensure resiliency?”
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