How to Create the Right Cybersecurity Board Report

Engaging with your organization’s board of directors is an integral part of cybersecurity leadership. According to a survey by Gartner, between 2016 and 2021 the percentage of boards that consider cybersecurity a business risk has risen 30% – from 58% to 88%. After economic uncertainty, cyber risk now ranks as the number two concern for boards.

In light of this, as a cybersecurity leader, you need to think more strategically about presenting cybersecurity in terms of business risks and not technology. Let’s look at three key metrics that can help you create a cybersecurity board report that tells a good story and resonates with your board.

1. Peer and sector-wide cybersecurity analytics

Reporting the strength of your organization’s security program based on peer and sector-wide security benchmarking is becoming increasingly important to the board. By framing security performance in context, they can see if the organization is doing enough, not enough, or too much compared with its peers.

But this information is typically very hard to find. After all, most organizations do not want to reveal what security controls they have in place, if they meet regulatory standards, and if those measures have been exploited by hackers.

Fortunately, Bitsight Peer Analytics makes it easy to provide the sector-wide context that boards are asking for. With Bitsight, you can:

• Discover security performance standards for your industry and peer group
• Set achievable security goals based on relative performance
• Focus security investments to achieve the greatest impact

Bitsight Peer Analytics | Bitsight

2. Security ratings

Another meaningful metric is a security rating. Bitsight Security Ratings are data-driven measurements of enterprise-wide security performance that help assess risk and the likelihood of a cybersecurity incident – both internally and across your supply chain.

Indeed, Bitsight is the industry’s only cybersecurity rating independently correlated to the likelihood of a ransomware attack or cyber breach.

Importantly, Bitsight’s findings are presented as a numerical score – like a credit score – so you can quickly convey security risks in straightforward business terms. For instance, if you had a Bitsight rating of 750, how compelling would it be to tell your board that you had half the risk of a ransomware attack or data breach compared to most companies in your industry?

Bitsight also provides insight into areas of risk such as patching cadence or open ports. In addressing these risks, you can use your improved security rating to demonstrate progress toward better cybersecurity.

Critically, Bitsight’s dashboard summarizes your security program’s overall health with simple visuals that can be exported with the click of a button into your cybersecurity board report.

3. Quantify cyber risk in dollar terms

Elevate your conversations with the board by quantifying cyber risk in terms of its financial impact.

Using Bitsight Financial Quantification you can easily simulate your organization’s financial exposure across hundreds of thousands of cyber events, including ransomware, regulatory compliance issues, supply chain attacks, and more. You can also demonstrate how that exposure changes as you invest in new security controls and resources.

If you’ve ever struggled to convey to your board that your company is spending $5M to deal with a $50M risk, Bitsight can help.

Effective assurance with Bitsight

Developing a shared understanding of cyber risk without using technical language is the key to creating a useful and informative cybersecurity board report. With Bitsight, you can quickly connect your board to the myriad of technical projects and security measures you’re advancing in a meaningful way.

• Simplify highly technical conversations with Bitsight Security Ratings
• Get fingertip access to extensive benchmarking and deep competitive analysis
• Highlight the real world, financial impact of cyber risk with easy-to-understand metrics

Learn more about how Bitsight for Executive Reporting can help you instill confidence in your board.