EDITOR’ S QUESTION
NICK HARRIS, CISO OF ASSURED
CIOs are stuck in a three-way tug of war. Cyberthreats are more advanced. Regulators are tightening the screws and with different EU countries interpreting DORA differently and the UK’ s Cyber Security and Resilience Bill around the corner, the board still expects Digital Transformation to move faster than ever. Can the CISO have the answer? Always, security should be the focus; but compliance can be the outcome( not the goal) and unlock these challenges. So how can we do that without causing friction to business?
1. Assess once, report many
Use tooling that maps your controls across NIS2, DORA, GDPR the UK Cyber Security and Resilience Bill and whatever lands next. This way you assess a control once and report many times. When a new regulation drops, it can be added to your current control mapping, without needing to start from scratch. Audit fatigue is real and I feel for IT control owners having to share evidence repeatedly. Smart GRC platforms let you prove once, report many times.
2. Model the real threats
• Regulatory fine avoidance( e. g.‘ This investment helps prevents £ 17 million in potential GDPR exposure’)
• Operational continuity( e. g.‘ This reduces the risk of supply chain downtime which would delay delivery by two weeks and cause £ 2 million of lost revenue’)
• Revenue protection( e. g.‘ A breach here risks losing our top five enterprise customers worth £ 8.5 million annually’)
4. Cut friction, not corners
Security that slows people down gets bypassed. Prioritise controls that work behind the scenes or enhance user flow. Single sign-on. Windows Hello so
Audit fatigue is real and I feel for IT control owners having to share evidence repeatedly. Smart GRC platforms let you prove once, report many times.
Threat modelling to determine how best to frame the security is essential and should cover business attractiveness to attackers as well as regulatory risk, operational downtime, reputational damage and thirdparty exposure. Your model needs to factor brand impact and customer churn to tell the whole story.
3. Drop the tech. Focus on value
The board does not care about patch cycles or CVSS scores. They care about how risk affects delivery, growth and reputation. This is your chance to show cybersecurity as a revenue generator as well as loss preventer. Granted its more applicable to B2B but consumers can care about trust in their data and frame the conversation around: you can go passwordless. Device trust. Automated policy enforcement. This gives teams the freedom to move fast without leaving the door open.
Done right, security keeps you safe and the side-effect of compliance shows you’ re consistent, prepared and serious. It makes conversations with the board easier. It strengthens customer confidence. It gives transformation a solid foundation.
The organisations that get this right are not the ones slowing down to tick boxes. They are the ones moving faster because security is part of the engine, not something strapped on the back.
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