Businesses across the board are facing an unprecedented range of cyber risks that could have catastrophic consequences. Moreover, there is no ‘silver bullet’ solution. The common maxim today is that a determined enough attacker will eventually get in.
There’s also the question of resources. Many companies lack the skills and resources needed to fight today’s complex threats and this is due, at least in part, to the security and risk teams working as disparate entities.
This creates an imbalance. Security fights for one agenda and risk fights for the other – and unfortunately, this could result in a security incident and the associated fallout. Businesses can close this gap and protect their data assets and reputation. There isn’t a choice to be made here; it isn’t as hard as one might think to achieve both objectives for security and risk with a strategic approach to integrating processes and automation.
Security savvy enterprises are doing this, and moving towards a collaborative risk management model with a growing overlap between these two teams.
There’s no doubt that the legacy technologies, buying processes, and functionally-driven priorities we’ve seen in the last two decades or so have left some businesses with outdated and redundant risk management tools and solutions. However, this can be managed by moving toward a more holistic, collaborative way of working that brings together the priorities of both security, and compliance stakeholders.
To become partners and provide the best possible protection for the business, risk and security leaders need to collaborate and get on the same page in terms of any challenges around conflicting priorities. The very pace of technology, the threat landscape that is growing increasingly complex and sophisticated, and of course the demands of the business, will continue to impact risk and security priorities unless there is effective communication and joint methods of planning.
Security and compliance are increasingly intersecting in areas such as managing the risk and impact of a data breach. Clearly defined policies are the best way of mitigating an incident and limiting any possible fallout. Most business resources are stretched to the limit, so it makes sense for these teams to work together, sharing knowledge and expertise, to stretch these resources further.