The value of risk-based information security presentations
As the cybersecurity landscape evolves more quickly than ever, effective communication between security professionals, executives and the Board is essential for preventing security incidents. Too often, however, cyber security presentations provide numbers and data without the insight or context that allow stakeholders to draw accurate and helpful conclusions from the information. Reports are often too voluminous, too incomplete, or too technical to be effective, preventing the kind of communication that can focus resources and align efforts to prevent a breach.
Bitsight can help. As the world’s leading Security Ratings platform, Bitsight offers solutions for risk-based reporting that can enable information security presentations to be simpler and more insightful. Bitsight helps security professionals to provide cyber security information with actionable context, highlighting the value of cybersecurity efforts and ensuring that their organization is getting the most out of limited time and resources.
Elements of risk-based security presentation
Risk-based reporting is an approach to communication that is best suited to reducing an organization’s actual exposure to cyber threats. By preparing risk-based information security presentations, security teams can focus attention and resources on the most significant issues to ensure optimal progress toward improving security posture.
Context is critical for risk-based information security presentations. Metrics presented in a vacuum are difficult to understand and rarely actionable. For example, knowing that a firewall has stopped 1200 potential intrusions means nothing without context that reveals whether that number is high, low, or average. Context can include everything from security benchmarking that compares current and past performance to financial quantification of cyber risk or information on how current efforts align to standard cybersecurity frameworks.
Additionally, the elements of a risk-based information security presentation may include:
- Reports that place the highest-risk items front and center.
- Risk scores attached to key findings or recommendations.
- Risk framed in business terms to help executives and leaders understand the ramifications of metrics.
- Frequent reporting on critical items, or the use of continuous monitoring dashboards that keep the most important metrics in front of stakeholders.