The Evolving Role of the CISO

Traditionally, a chief information security officer (CISO) is the executive responsible for establishing and maintaining an organisation’s vision, strategy and program to ensure complete data and information security. The responsibilities associated with this role have evolved over the years with a spike in the number of technologies adopted by today’s investment firms as well as the number of information assets that require protection. According to Gartner, all large businesses will be required to report to their board on any cybersecurity and technology risks once a year. 

So, as talks of technology continue to become more prevalent in the board room, the role of a CISO now has many new layers and lines of communication. Today’s blog article will explore key considerations for investment firms and CISOs on keeping their business secure.

A key aspect of the role of the CISO is to build and maintain a robust and resilient IT infrastructure. This requires considering the different hardware and software available to protect confidential firm and client data you store and to cover any vulnerabilities of your firm specifically. CISOs will need to work with all organisational departments to identify any organisational vulnerabilities and deploy the right IT tools to address them in the most bespoke manner to your firm.

Along with choosing the right hardware and applications, deploying Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) is recommended by our experts. SIEM provides real-time analysis of security alerts generated by applications and network hardware. 

Monitoring the cyber threat landscape to keep abreast of new threats and hacks is a must. With hacks and attacks becoming more sophisticated, having a team of security experts to carry out real-time checks for threats and respond accordingly is vital. In particular, we recommend ongoing Dark Web Monitoring, to protect your firm and its senior executives from the damaging effects of a malicious account takeover. 

In addition to this, it is important for the organisation and its employees at all levels to be security centric, with regular managed phishing and training sessions. Read our latest whitepaper on building a human firewall for best practices on phishing readiness. 

Cybersecurity is a full-time job, so it worth having enough staff to manage ongoing security operations and work on the continuous improvement of security strategies or to seriously consider outsourcing this role to a trusted expert. 

Having a defined access management policy is integral to preventing data loss and fraud. With many different systems and information assets in use today, CISOs must stress the importance of access management. Firms are advised to grant levels of access based on the nature of the role of the employee and to seniority, as well as setting clear rules around information sharing. 

Patch management of all applications and systems used is an essential line of defence in cybersecurity protection. And, ensuring system patches are current is vital to every organisation’s security. Firms are encouraged to close any gaps before intruders find them with a robust patch management strategy. Our patch management experts recommend the following four stages: 

1.    Assessing Inventory & Environment
2.    Discover New Patches
3.    Test, Validate & Plan Deployment
4.    Deploy Approved Patches 

Read more about our patch management service here. 

There are many other considerations for today’s CISOs to ensure the organisation has the right practices and tools deployed for complete information security. This article covers the top recommendations from security experts at Eze Castle Integration. 

Please get in touch if you’d like to learn how you can strengthen your security practices.