To state the obvious, organizations of all shapes and sizes are under constant attack in cyberspace. Some ignore the risk, hoping that it will simply go away or that they won’t suffer a breach. Others opt to weather the storm even if a breach occurs, willingly risking their critical data. Others still deny that a breach would dramatically affect their business. Is this a risk your organization is willing to take?

Take Action to Protect Critical Data

Some forward-looking organizations focus on protecting their critical data assets because they are vital to their business operations and competitive positioning. These organizations understand they must protect critical data to sustain competitiveness in today’s global economy. Assets such as intellectual property, trade secrets, customer information, information about mergers and acquisitions, health information and other sensitive data are extremely valuable to cybercriminals.

Organizations are taking action to understand the type of data they possess, the value of that data to the organization, the controls that are in place and the potential impact to business processes should the data be breached or corrupted. They are implementing the controls required to protect these sensitive assets and monitor potential risks.

Watch the on-demand webinar to learn more about protecting your critical data

A Collaborative Effort

Discussion should not solely be focused on the type of controls in place, the number of patches applied or the number of incidents detected. We need to discuss potential business disruptions due to cyberattacks and the business processes that may be affected. Risk management should be a collaborative effort between business leaders and the IT team.

Are your line-of-business (LOB) owners and executives aware of the risk to their critical data? Do they know which LOBs carry the greatest risk, what sensitive data is at risk, how valuable the data is, who owns the data and which users are putting the data at risk?

Executive boards must understand the need to protect critical data — it’s no longer just an IT issue. In turn, IT leaders must make sure business leaders have the insight they need to protect their assets.

Learn More

For more information, check out the on-demand webinar titled “Stop Playing ‘Chicken’ With Your Data-Related Business Risk — Protect Your Critical Data.”

To learn more about why traditional security metrics are irrelevant to most executives, download the Gartner report titled “Develop Key Risk Indicators and Security Metrics That Influence Business Decision-Making.”