Executive Summary
There are obvious ways cybersecurity impacts business. For example, when a massive cyberattack happens, business can stop suddenly, like an emergency break derailing a train running at full speed.
Beyond this off-the-rails scenario, the work of the cybersecurity team also impacts day-to-day business efficiency, speed of service delivery, costs, employee productivity, user experience, and sales. While these impacts aren’t as dramatic as the train accident analogy, they can slow down business and take it off course in ways that make it hard to recover.
The importance of alignment between cybersecurity and business enablement
As organizations continue to navigate a complex IT landscape and uncertain economic climate, alignment between cybersecurity and business is essential for success.
Cybersecurity teams are increasingly told they shouldn’t be working in a silo, focused only on protecting technology. They hear they can’t be the “department of no” and instead must become “business enablers.”
However, many aren’t sure how to make those buzzwords a reality. Most cybersecurity leaders have technical training and have come up through the ranks of technical departments. They may have worked in a silo for most of their career. Shifting mindset to enable a new way of working isn’t accomplished overnight. Getting an accurate, shared understanding of where our industry is today is the first step.
Within this context, we surveyed over 2,000 cybersecurity decision-makers in 22 countries, working in enterprises with over 500 employees, to understand the current state of business enablement. More precisely, we wanted to identify, with data, the kinds of attributes that have a meaningful impact on business enablement, including alignment, skills, and organizational structures.
What we’ve learned is fascinating and troubling The results indicate that the cybersecurity industry has a long way to go to become effective business enablers. The data reveals a lack of alignment among teams as well as within teams, which has the potential to negatively impact both security posture and
achievement of business goals.
In fact, 89% of respondents say their business suffered at least one negative impact in the past year due to lack of cybersecurity and business alignment. Much of the problem lies in an enterprise’s inability to align goals and metrics effectively.
And a very large part of that challenge lies squarely in organizations’ struggle to achieve common agreement across a wide range of expectations.
In this report, you’ll get a picture of the current situation and understand some of the drivers that determine not just cybersecurity posture but also business success.
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