A Day in the Life of a CISO – Presenting to the Board Chairman
It’s 7:30 AM when I check my inbox, and right at the top is an urgent email from Alex, our Chairman of the Board: “I need an update on how we’re stacking up against our competitors on security.” Not just a quick overview—he’s asking for specifics on how our cybersecurity posture compares to our peers, the improvements we’ve made, and a detailed look at our progress since our last board meeting. I also need to provide visibility into how our various Business Units are performing to identify any gaps.
Fortunately, I know I have the data to quickly give him a thorough answer. With a coffee in hand, I log in to the SecurityScorecard platform and am met with an overview dashboard where I can pull reports not just on our overall performance, but also on the detailed breakdown of areas where we’re excelling or need a closer watch. This gives me a benchmark of how we’re tracking before I dive into our competitors’ data.
Competitive Benchmarking
I quickly pull together data of our cohort from a portfolio of our top competitors that I had previously created and start comparing ratings across key security categories: Application Security, Network Security, and DNS Health. The comparison is stark; I’m able to pinpoint areas where we’ve made major improvements, especially in threat detection and endpoint security, putting us increasingly above the pack.
Knowing that Alex and the board will be interested in deeper analysis on our competitors, I also drill down into each of our competitor’s scorecards, see how their score has changed over the last 6-12 months, and identify any competitors that experienced a breach during that time period. I’m able to easily download this historical view via a Board Report to give Alex visibility into my peers’ recent breaches and security posture. With these insights, we’re able to compare our track record of reliability to the market, and position our solution as a safer alternative. Thanks to SecurityScorecard, we proactively mitigate the types of risks that led to the competitor’s breaches we’re seeing in this report.
Showcasing Internal Performance
Once I have the industry comparison ready, I pivot to our internal scorecards, showing how each business unit is performing relative to one another. In SecurityScorecard, I’ve set up custom scorecards for each of our departments. Our Sales and R&D units stand out as areas that have significantly strengthened their security in the past quarter, while Operations is showing some signs of lagging, particularly around supply chain risk and endpoint protection.
I make note of the standout areas and flag any low-scoring categories. This way, I can not only present the overall health of our company’s cybersecurity posture but also highlight where we should focus more attention internally. To better communicate our overall path of maturity of our Cybersecurity Program to my executive team, I’ll include the NIST CSF 2.0 widget from the Board Reporting section in SecurityScorecard. With this I’m able to rank our organization across the domains of the NIST CSF framework, which shows our positive momentum and gives the board peace of mind that we’re meeting compliance standards.
Building the Presentation
By mid-morning, I’m finalizing the analysis for Alex. I include:
- Overall Competitive Analysis: A high-level comparison of our security scores against competitors, to include historical trends and recent breach information.
- Internal Health: A breakdown of our top-performing business units and those needing improvement, based on our Scorecards.
- Next Steps: Immediate areas for improvement, aligned with our business units’ scores.
Afternoon Meeting with the Chairman
At 3 PM, I meet with Alex to walk him through my findings. He’s particularly interested in the internal scorecards, asking questions about what specific actions we’re taking to boost our lower-scoring departments. With SecurityScorecard’s data at hand, I can give him confidence that we’re already deploying resources to tackle these areas.
By the end of the meeting, he’s extremely pleased and shares his confidence in the level and scope of security we’re providing to our organization. I’m reminded of the value of having data-backed insights and tools at my fingertips that make comparisons and internal assessments quick and efficient.
Just another day as a CISO, balancing strategic insight with operational vigilance, ensuring our organization stays secure and competitive. Now, where’s that cup of coffee I need to reheat?
Does this sound like your day? If not, contact us for a demo and to learn more about SecurityScorecard.