You can use X-Analytics to assess, manage, design, and communicate your cyber resilience strategy.
Why is effective communication important?
In our world today, cyber risk is relevant to almost every aspect of business or other organization. It is essential, that we know how to communicate cyber risk to create "peace of mind" or "drive action".
As your co-pilot, X-Analytics helps you communicate your cyber resilience strategy by converting technical concepts into business outcomes. This support page provides guidance to effectively communicate with corporate directors (aka the Board), CEO, CFO, CRO, CIO, and CISO. This guidance ensures you can clearly express your organization's:
cyber risk condition, including the trending of this condition
risk mitigation options (especially if the cyber risk condition is not yet desirable or at target)
risk transfer options (especially if there is a need to offset potential future damages)
and other.
With effective communication, you help the business or organization:
protect shareholder value and reputation
align cyber budget with cyber realities
meet and maintain compliance and regulatory requirements
and other.
Why are there communication guidelines for different leaders?
X-Analytics developed different guidelines for different business leaders because each business leader has a different agenda or perspective.
Corporate Directors (the Board): The board is responsible for oversight or accountability of the organization. They have direct oversight of the CEO, and leave day-to-day operations to the CEO.
Primary Cyber Focus: They need to know if their current cyber risk condition poses a threat to shareholder value and reputation.
Secondary Cyber Focus: They need to know there are options to improve their cyber risk condition in order to protect shareholder value and reputation.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO): The CEO is responsible for the company's success, which means the CEO is responsible for day-to-day operations. An effective CEO delegates action to other executive leaders, such as CFO, CRO, and CIO. Everyone in the company works for the CEO.
Primary Cyber Focus: The CEO needs to know if the business is optimized for the greatest success and that their cyber risk condition will not introduce an unexpected outcome that adversely impacts revenue or margin.
Secondary Cyber Focus: The CEO needs an optimized target state for their cyber risk condition, which then informs all risk mitigation and risk transfer decisions.
Chief Financial Officer (CFO): The CFO is responsible for all financial matters. This includes responsible use of budget to maintain shareholder value.
Primary Cyber Focus: The CFO needs to know if their cyber risk condition will adversely impact revenue or margin.
Secondary Cyber Focus: The CFO needs the cyber budget to be aligned with cyber realities.
Chief Risk Officer (CRO): The CRO is responsible for the company's risk management operations. This includes internal and external risks to the business, protecting the company's reputation, and maintaining legal and ethical requirements.
Primary Cyber Focus: The CRO needs to know if their cyber risk condition poses unexpected risk to the business. Keep in mind that a certain amount of risk is acceptable.
Secondary Cyber Focus: The CRO needs options for risk mitigation and risk transfer if the current cyber risk condition is not acceptable.
Chief Information Officer (CIO): The CIO is responsible for managing, evaluating, and assessing the company's information technology to ensure such technology is aligned with business expectations. This includes compliance, security, availability, and many other responsibilities.
Primary Cyber Focus: The CIO needs to know if their cyber risk condition poses a risk to day-to-day functionality, which includes downtime, compliance and regulatory violations, and other.
Secondary Cyber Focus: The CIO needs to know if the cyber risk condition is at target state, how that condition is trending over time, options for prioritized mitigation, options for transfer optimization, and the ability to understand where a cyber incident becomes a major problem.
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO): The CISO is responsible for developing and implementing cybersecurity strategy, policies, procedures, and protocols. This includes protecting shareholder value, the company's reputation, request and use of cyber budget, and other.
Primary Cyber Focus: The CISO needs to know if the ongoing assessment of their cyber risk condition aligns with expectations. If it does not, then the CISO needs options to adjust strategy, policies, procedures, and protocols.
Secondary Cyber Focus: The CISO needs prioritized options for risk mitigation, optimized options for risk transfer, the ability to forecast budget requirements and return on investment per budget item, an understanding of compliance to risk alignment, the ability to proactively and reactively determine if cyber incidents are material, and other.
By striking a balance between technical expertise and approachable, business aligned discourse, leaders can elevate cyber risk communication to an organizational enabler, fostering resilience and innovation in equal measure.
How do I access the X-Analytics communication guidelines?
Accessing the X-Analytics communication guidelines is easy. You just find the guide you need in the support library.
X-Analytics Definitions
For foundational support and better communication, the X-Analytics definitions are below:
Cyber Economic Definitions
Cyber Exposure: Cyber exposure is the sum of all possible losses multiplied by the probability of those losses.
Data Breach: The intentional or unintentional release of secure, private, or confidential information to an untrusted environment.
Interruption: The intentional or unintentional disruption of one or more information technology (IT) or operational technology (OT) systems.
Interruption (DoS): This only includes interruption incidents from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks
Interruption (Other): This includes all forms of interruption, resulting from malice or error, which does not include DDoS attacks.
Misappropriation: The intentional (illegal) use of intellectual property, funds, or service via a cyber incident.
Misappropriation of Funds: The intentional and illegal theft of electronic funds (such as ACH, wire transfer, and SWIFT)
Misappropriation of Intellectual Property (IP): The intentional and illegal theft of intellectual property, trade secrets, and other highly proprietary information.
Misappropriation of Services: The intentional and illegal use of a critical service to gain advantage or to cause integrity-based issues.
Ransomware: The intentional deployment of malware intended to encrypt data within one or more system to extort money from the victim organization.
In Summary
X-Analytics helps you assess, manage, develop, and communicate your cyber resilience strategy. Select the communication guideline that best suites your purpose and notice how fast you get the support you .
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