CEO Today - November 2021

VISION & STRATEGY www.ceotodaymagazine.com 43 cloud providers can positively impact data management and cybersecurity is essential for senior leaders. This awareness allows you to have more informed and considered conversations when choosing external providers allowing you to work with IT leads to put effective, cohesive strategies in place. The security crisis – a collective business issue What’s clear from the new insights is that businesses understand the importance of both cybersecurity and data protection, but missing skillsets are leaving organisations at significant risk. That’s why it’s vital senior leaders take the skills gap seriously. The data shows that working together with IT teams is a crucial part of the puzzle. A third of those asked said they felt more prepared to handle a cyber attack because senior leadership has put more focus on cybersecurity than ever before. This shows the importance of recognising the concerns of IT teams and putting measures in place to protect the business before it’s too late. Alongside this, addressing the skills gap should span the whole business. While factoring in improved software with better cybersecurity measures is a sound way to protect the business at a strategic level, having an open dialogue with employees across all levels means cybersecurity and data protection knowledge is shared and best practices are front of mind at all times. While it can take careful planning, businesses that factor in addressing the skills gap into the wider business strategy will reap the rewards. Factoring in recruiting new talent, upskilling teams, or investing in new software can take time, but the protection and long-term cost savings from a potential attack or data breach are hugely worthwhile. that few teams actually had cybersecurity risk assessments in place. Remarkably, only one-third of those surveyed have conducted one in the past 12 months, despite the COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changing the way businesses operate. A further 12% had never conducted one and had no plans to do so, with 16% that had conducted one more than five years ago, when operations and businesses were likely significantly different, also having no plans to do another in the future. This lack of understanding regarding the importance of risk monitoring can lead to irreparable damage, from both a time and cost perspective. Fortunately, eight in 10 respondents say they do feel prepared to handle a cyber attack, despite any skills gap. Interestingly, investing in more secure cloud services came out as the main reason behind this. Carefully planned and configured cloud deployments provide scalable, flexible, and most importantly secure operations for businesses. Working with IT teams to put a strategy in place tailored to your business’s needs, external cloud providers can offer an extra layer of defence and additional knowledge on ever-evolving cyber threats. It’s essential to have procedures in place to effectively manage data across the business, and reputable cloud providers can store business-critical data safely and in compliance with strict regulations. For example, working with European-based cloud providers that adhere to GDPR – rather than those that must also work under laws such as the US CLOUD act – can be one way to help minimise risk when handling data. Having an understanding of the ways “As a business leader, it’s essential to sit down with teams to understand first-hand where knowledge gaps currently exist and create a plan of action to plug these are soon as possible.”