A Day in the Life of a CISO – Addressing an Urgent Security Threat

Late last night, I received a notification from SecurityScorecard alerting me to a newly discovered vulnerability, Solarwinds, with potentially severe business implications for my organization. It’s now 6AM, and I’ve been up through the night, digging into the latest security research to fully assess the risk and scope of exposure. Thanks to SecurityScorecard’s real-time automated alert, I’m ahead of the situation and have already proactively briefed our CIO and executive team.

Instead of switching between various vulnerability scanners, I can go straight into the SecurityScorecard platform. My first step is accessing SecurityScorecard’s vulnerability intelligence in CVEDetails, to pinpoint the vulnerable asset including the product and version information in order to validate if the vulnerability is indeed present in our environment. This platform has become my trusted source-of-truth, and the data it provides is invaluable—not just for our own risk management, but also for guiding the vendors we’ll be engaging to help resolve this issue.

Next, I leverage the Supply Chain Risk Intelligence solution within the platform to understand which of our 10,000 vendors might be linked to this vulnerability, either through their products or services. Within seconds, I identify relevant third and Nth-party connections and generate a report to share with my team and other internal stakeholders. This level of visibility enables me to act swiftly and decisively, keeping both my organization and our partners protected.

Getting to the answers quickly

Fortunately, I’d already classified our thousands of vendors by criticality before today’s incident, allowing my team to cut through the noise and prioritize effectively during chaotic moments. To determine which vendors are critical, we evaluated them based on three key criteria: What type of data does this vendor have access to? Through which methods can they access our data? What is the business impact to our products and services if they are breached or unavailable? 

Identifying and tiering our critical vendors has given us a deep understanding of our supply chain and highlighted the vulnerabilities within our digital ecosystem. This insight enables us to strengthen our defenses and respond more effectively when incidents arise.

Uncovering the next layer of visibility 

For my critical vendors, I rely on SecurityScorecard’s Automatic Vendor Detection (AVD) solution to take visibility a step further, giving me insight into their Nth-party connections. Are my vendors’ vendors at risk? Are there high-risk suppliers linked to our critical partners? AVD uncovers previously unknown vendors across our entire supply chain and reveals the hidden risks they may introduce. This extra layer of visibility helps me understand the tech stacks of our critical vendors and identify any areas of concentration risk—allowing us to take action before attackers can.

With this expanded perspective, I have greater peace of mind, knowing that I can spot weak links or potential entry points, however far removed they might be. I generate a report that lets my team and stakeholders easily visualize all connected parties that could be affected, keeping everyone aligned and informed.

External Response and Remediation  

Now that I have visibility for my critical vendors, I launch a Questionnaire with the impacted vendors specific to that vulnerability. Additionally, if my vendors had 4th or Nth party vendors who were impacted, I can supplement my questionnaire with that specific data. These questionnaires are tailored to get precise answers on security measures in place, recent updates, and any patches or configurations to prevent SolarWinds-style exploits. 

Setting Up Rule Workflow Automation

To ensure consistent follow-ups, I decide to implement a rule workflow automation within the SecurityScorecard platform. I set up rules to track the responses, so if any vendor doesn’t complete their questionnaire within a few hours, they’ll receive an automated reminder. Additionally, any vendor indicating gaps in their defenses will trigger an alert to my team for immediate review and potential escalation. The automation guarantees that no flagged vendor slips through the cracks and that my team is always on top of high-severity cases.

The Best Plan is Proactive Planning 

Fortunately, I’m not scrambling (at least, not as much as I could be) because of proactive planning. Long before this incident, I partnered with SecurityScorecard’s team to build a comprehensive incident response plan. This preparation means that when a major vulnerability arises, I don’t have to waste time figuring out who to call or what steps to take. Instead, I can move directly into action.

From a remediation and response perspective, our incident response plan is our playbook. It’s designed to address both internal and external threats and provides a structured, step-by-step approach for our teams. The plan includes key contacts for my critical vendors, so I already know exactly who to reach out to in critical situations.

For incidents of this magnitude, I take a dual approach: using the SecurityScorecard platform to send out a formal questionnaire and conducting a direct follow-up with our vendor contacts to ensure urgency and clarity. This combined method enables us to quickly gather the data we need, assess the situation, and take action—all while keeping lines of communication open.

Having this plan in place allows me to move forward with confidence, knowing that my team and I are well-prepared to tackle the incident head-on. The partnership with SecurityScorecard has been invaluable in setting up these processes, and in times like this, I see the payoff in the smoothness of our response.

Internal Collaboration

Once I’ve collaborated with our vendor and have a clear path forward for addressing the vulnerability, my next step is internal coordination for remediation. With time as critical as it is, I use the SecurityScorecard platform to streamline this process by creating and assigning tickets directly to the appropriate teams, thanks to integrations with tools like JIRA and ServiceNow.

Each vulnerability gets assigned to a specific team, ensuring clear ownership and accountability. This targeted approach not only keeps everyone focused and aligned but also makes tracking progress and closing the loop on remediation much more efficient. Using SecurityScorecard’s platform for this integration means I can stay within one system, saving valuable time and reducing the risk of any steps being overlooked.

This organized approach is vital when dealing with complex incidents that require input from various departments, each with its own role in addressing the vulnerability. From my view as a CISO, assigning tasks and tracking their progress within a centralized system means I can focus less on administrative coordination and more on ensuring our overall response remains swift and effective.

Accurate, Timely Stakeholder Communications 

As I navigate this major vulnerability incident, clear, proactive communication is as crucial as any other defense strategy. I’ve already sent out external communications to my vendors. However, equally important—and more nuanced—is my internal communication with our executive team and board. Over the next several days I’ll be updating them with a focused, comprehensive risk assessment, going beyond the immediate data loss or security concerns. My goal is to provide a clear picture of how this incident impacts our business operations as a whole. For instance, this isn’t only a security challenge; it’s a significant business risk that affects multiple projects, disrupts timelines, and pulls resources from other critical initiatives. These adjustments, while necessary, carry real financial consequences and require careful prioritization. 

To give our leadership a grounded, data-backed sense of the potential financial losses, I leverage SecurityScorecard’s Cyber Risk Quantification (CRQ) tool. CRQ allows me to translate the technical impact into a potential financial impact. This insight is invaluable for executives and board members who, while informed about cybersecurity, need to understand how vulnerabilities translate into direct business risks, financial implications, and potential shifts in our strategic focus. It’s a way of anchoring security incidents to the overall health of the organization, so that we all stay aligned on the response and recovery priorities.

My communications don’t just serve our leadership; they also build a culture of resilience and transparency, which is critical in the face of evolving cybersecurity threats. Each day’s communication may vary—sometimes it’s a detailed report with granular information around the progress we’re making with our partners to remediate any known issues, other times it’s a brief but targeted email—but my commitment to providing an accurate, timely assessment of the risk to our business never wavers.

Just another day as a CISO, staying vigilant to cyber threats, leveraging strong third-party cyber risk management practices, and fostering a culture of proactive security to protect my organization and our broader supply chain. Now, time to get some sleep. 

Does this sound like your day? If not, contact us for a demo and to learn more about SecurityScorecard.