The role of the CISO has never been more challenging, and the hits just keep on coming. The SEC’s revised disclosure rules, which came into effect in December 2023, potentially place personal liability on CISO shoulders, as did its lawsuit against SolarWinds CISO Timothy Brown. Even though the court threw out much of the SEC’s claims against him, CISOs remain at risk of personal liability for security failings.
Meanwhile, the widespread adoption of AI and generative AI (GenAI) is opening up new security risks left, right, and center. Threats are rising, attack surfaces are expanding as supply chains grow and cloud sprawl takes hold, and regulatory requirements are mushrooming.
On top of all that, the talent shortage is still ongoing, with one survey reporting that 38% of CISOs believe recruiting talent is harder now than it was a year ago. In the face of so many difficulties, what do CISOs need to make it through 2025 unscathed?
360 Degree Vision
The threat landscape is expanding enormously, with cyber threats becoming more frequent, more cunning, and appearing from more vectors. We’re seeing ransomware-as-a-service as an established attack method, new types of phishing, and criminals using AI to make attacks more elusive.
Attack sources have grown with state-sponsored cyber warfare, dedicating major resources towards bigger attacks. At the same time, attack surfaces are expanding, offering more potential entry points. Remote work means that devices are more vulnerable and locations less secure, and the larger digital supply chain and IoT devices enable attacks from more directions. It’s reached the point that 70% of CISOs are “very concerned” about an impending cyber attack.
CISOs need more than the eyes in the backs of their heads, calling for no less than 360-degree visibility into their security ecosystem, 24/7. More than three-quarters of CISOs say that vulnerability management and threat detection, investigation, and response can no longer be siloed processes.
This calls for always-on monitoring using a SIEM platform like ManageEngine Log360, which provides a unified view of security events across the entire IT infrastructure. SIEM solutions include real-time monitoring, threat detection and analysis, and fast incident response, while also integrating easily with other security systems.
Automated Compliance
CISOs are attempting to keep up with a massive list of industry-specific standards, AI regulations, data privacy and security requirements, and it’s growing all the time. Regulations vary across regions and industries, and their requirements can even sometimes conflict with each other.
These regulatory frameworks also extend into the supply chain. You have to ensure not just your own compliance but also that of your third parties, and consider regulations that affect partners whose supply chain you’re part of. Fully 98% of CISOs are concerned about the pace of regulatory change, 79% say that the time and effort of managing it isn’t sustainable, and almost half say that the burden causes them to doubt their future as a CISO.
The only salvation is automation. Cypago’s compliance management platform automates time-consuming tasks like vendor assessments, control monitoring, and user access reviews. The solution can collect signals from across all your data sources, scan it all to detect compliance gaps, and automatically apply preset remediation actions.
With compliance automation, risk assessment and prioritisation becomes almost effortless. The contextual analysis engine produces dynamic risk scores for all your networks, data repositories, and third parties, enabling you to focus your resources towards the most serious risks. Cypago also documents compliance activities in accessible formats, and streamlines audit preparation workflows, making it easy to keep up with reporting schedules.
A Strategic Voice
Traditionally, security was the province of a single department that’s responsible for safeguarding the company’s IT systems. But today, you need a culture that bakes secure-by-design principles across the organisation.
Employees in every department use digital tools, companies in every vertical offer their own app, and GenAI chatbots are de rigueur for attentive customer service. Remote work and the rise in cloud usage means that it’s not enough to just secure your organisation’s on-prem systems.
This requires CISOs to to establish and extend their role so that their voice is heard much higher up in the hierarchy. The problem is that many CISOs are C-level only in title, not in the role. One report found that only 20% of CISOs actually have seats at the senior executive table. Just half engage with their board at least quarterly or more, which is nowhere near enough if you’re trying to advance an organisational culture.
CISOs desperately need to achieve C-suite parity and improve their board face-time. Their best hope for doing so is to successfully communicate the business need to manage cyber risk. CYE equips CISOs with quantifiable data to demonstrate the impact of cyber risks in business terms, including potential financial consequences, plotting probable attack scenarios, and communicating budgetary and resource needs in easy-to-grasp presentations.
CISOs Need All the Help They Can Get
The outlook is challenging for CISOs, with threats, regulations, and pressure rising as resources fall. The good news is that evolving tech brings them tools to cope with the burden. By arming themselves effectively, CISOs can successfully overcome the obstacles in their path and turn 2025 into a banner year.
