6 Things Every CISO Should Do the First 90 Days on the Job
Not too long ago, the role of chief information security officer was a purely technical position designed to help an organization overcome cybersecurity challenges. Today, however, the CISO role has evolved — growing both in responsibility and stature within a company. The CISO is now a critical member of the executive team, responsible for tying not only cybersecurity, but overall risk management, to the company’s business strategy and operations.
The modern CISO is involved in strategic decision-making, for example, ensuring the business securely embraces digital transformation while assuring the board, clients, and investors that cyber capabilities and defenses are active and evolving with current threats. And they are responsible for leveraging people, processes, and technologies to enable their organization to fulfill its overarching business objectives securely.
Given this evolution in responsibilities, a CISO’s first 90 days on the job should look a lot different today than it did even several years ago.
While many CISOs want to immediately demonstrate value by jumping in with big ideas and projects on day one, they will be able to make much more of a long-term impact if they first take the time to understand the company’s mission, values, and business objectives. They also need to get up to speed on core activities, products, services, research and development, intellectual property, and merger and acquisition plans. And they need to understand all potential issues, previous breaches, regulatory or external obligations, and existing technical debt.
With this in mind, here are a few recommendations on what a CISO’s focus should be during their first 90 days on the job.
The very first day, begin to deploy a collection of interview and interrogation techniques with a goal of understanding the business, its purposes and its priorities. Interview your employees, midlevel business leaders, and customers to get a sense of all key stakeholders, initial pain points, and how mature the cybersecurity culture is within the organization. Finally, gently interrogate your partners, suppliers, and vendors to determine who is just selling and who is a trusted advisor. Going through this process will open lines of communication, uncover challenges, and help build a 90-day action plan and road map.
Determine which data and systems underpin the company’s strategic mission and core competencies, represent intellectual property, differentiate the enterprise from its competitors, or support major customer segments or revenue lines. These crown jewels are the digital assets that are most likely to be targeted by threat actors, and thus must have their cyber-hygiene efforts accelerated.
