Is Cyber Resilience a Core Business Strategy
Geoff Hancock CISO CISSP, CISA, CEH, CRISC
I help business and technology executives enhance their leadership, master cyber operations, and bridge cybersecurity with business strategy.
Step 1: Shift the Mindset—Cyber Resilience Is a Core Business Metric
We need to start treating cyber resilience the way we treat financial resilience. It’s not just about preventing attacks—it’s about ensuring the business can anticipate, withstand, respond, and recover from them without catastrophic impact.
Step 2: CEOs—Make Cyber Resilience a Leadership Priority
As a CEO, you don’t need to be a cybersecurity expert, but you do need to ask the right questions: ?? What’s our risk exposure if we get attacked tomorrow? ?? How long can we afford to be offline before it cripples us? ?? What’s our recovery plan, and when was the last time we tested it? ?? Are we treating cyber resilience as a business KPI or just an IT checklist?
Step 3: CISOs—Measure and Communicate Resilience in Business Terms
If you’re not translating cyber risk into business impact, it won’t get the attention it deserves.
Start tracking and reporting these key metrics: Mean Time to Detect (MTTD): How fast do we spot threats? Mean Time to Respond (MTTR): How quickly do we contain the damage? Recovery Time Objective (RTO): How long until we’re fully operational? Employee Security Awareness: Are we empowering our people to be the first line of defense?
When you bring these numbers to the board in the same way finance reports revenue or operations reports efficiency, cyber resilience stops being "an IT thing" and becomes a business priority.
Step 4: Make It a Competitive Advantage, Not Just a Defense Mechanism
The best companies don’t just survive cyber incidents—they thrive despite them. When customers, investors, and partners see that your business can handle disruptions without missing a beat, it builds trust and gives you a competitive edge.
So Don’t wait for an attack to measure cyber resilience. Start treating it as a core business metric today—because the companies that do will be the ones still standing tomorrow.
??
What does a strong cyber resilience plan actually look like?
A solid cyber resilience plan ensures that a business can withstand, respond to, and recover from a cyberattack with minimal disruption. It should include:
Key Elements of a Cyber Resilience Plan
? Risk Assessment: Identify your biggest cyber risks (e.g., ransomware, insider threats, supply chain vulnerabilities).
? Incident Response Plan: A step-by-step playbook for handling cyber incidents, including roles and responsibilities.
? Business Continuity Plan (BCP): Ensures essential operations continue even during an attack.
? Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP): Focuses on restoring IT systems and data quickly.
? Communication Strategy: A clear process for notifying employees, customers, and regulators in case of a breach.
? Testing & Drills: Regular simulations (tabletop exercises) to test readiness and improve response time.
Who Should Be Involved?
How Often Should It Be Tested? At least quarterly for high-risk businesses, annually for others. Each test should simulate a real-world attack scenario and involve all key stakeholders.
Action Step: Schedule a cyber resilience drill within the next 60 days to test your current response plan.
How much should we invest in cyber resilience?
There’s no one-size-fits-all number, but here’s a framework to determine your investment:
Cyber Resilience Budgeting Guidelines
Industry Benchmark: Most companies spend 7-10% of their IT budget on cybersecurity—but cyber resilience is different. A portion of that budget should be dedicated to business continuity, recovery solutions, and cyber insurance.
Risk-Based Approach: Calculate the potential cost of downtime and data loss if a cyberattack happens.
ROI Justification for the Board
Action Step: Assess your current cyber resilience budget and compare it to industry benchmarks—adjust as needed.
What are the first steps to improving cyber resilience today?
Not sure where to start? Here are three immediate actions every CEO & CISO can take:
3 Immediate Steps for CEOs & CISOs
Identify Your "Crown Jewels"
Run a Cyber Resilience Drill
Demand & Track Cyber Resilience KPIs
Action Step: Set a 30-day goal to implement at least one of these steps—small improvements add up!
Final Thoughts
Cyber resilience isn’t just an IT responsibility—it’s a core business function. By developing a solid plan, budgeting appropriately, and taking immediate action, your company can turn cyber resilience into a competitive advantage.
Director, Cyber Ops Strategy, AF and CCMD BG @ SAIC
1 周Putting cybersecurity in the same conversation with cash flow…love it.
CEO & Co-founder at Kovrr | Cyber Risk Quantification
1 周"Start treating cyber resilience the way we treat financial resilience." Well said. Both are critical for business long-term continuity and growth. In fact, they're closely intertwined. Cyber risk can (and often) have a direct and potentially severe impact on an organization's financial situation. Even in the case of a 1-in-10-year event, eight companies out of the S&P 500 face a loss <=10% of their annual profit. These implications warrant any of the C-suite and board members' attention.