How the most progressive boards manage cyber risk

Summary

This blog post, "How the most progressive boards manage cyber risk", is a blueAPACHE article from 2017 covering security. How do the most progressive boards tackle cyber risk? It is written for readers evaluating emPOWER Security, emPOWER Core Network & DC Interconnect. The underlying security practice it describes, reducing attack surface and improving detection and response, is not tied to a specific product version and remains relevant to any organisation managing cyber risk today.

Key facts

Article

How do the most progressive boards tackle cyber risk? Mark McLaughlin, Palo Alto Networks Chairman and CEO, shared key questions and insight into the conversations board members should be having with their CIOs. “I see that a lot of boards will talk to their CIOs and say – how safe are we? If I gave you one more dollar, how much safer would we be? And those are really hard questions to answers because it is just not that specific. I think the proper questions to answer are how comfortable do you feel in our security philosophy and architecture for the next three or five years? How much are we investing in making it more automated and less manual? The single biggest thing I see with progressive boards is they challenge their security leaders to think differently. The old way clearly doesn’t work but what does the progressive approach look like? Progressive boards ask questions such as how many attacks are we seeing? How many of those do we have to pay attention to? This is probably the most important measure you can make because it shows your level of efficiency. If you can force people in the organisation to think that way, you’ll get some interesting results. Another way of thinking is – in five years’ time, if I want to be twice as secure as we are today at half the cost, what would you do now? That really forces people to think outside the box. You just can’t keep doing it the old way if you want to make sure you are protected in the future.” To watch the full video of Mark’s insights, visit the original post here. blueAPACHE are a Palo Alto Networks premium partner and integrate Palo Alto next generation firewalls at the core of our emPOWER Cloud, emPOWER Network and emPOWER Managed Service solutions. For details on how to implement progressive security best practices, contact the blueAPACHE account team here.

Related

• emPOWER Security
• emPOWER Security (pillar hub)
• emPOWER Core Network & DC Interconnect
• emPOWER Connectivity (pillar hub)

Frequently asked questions

Who is quoted in this article on how progressive boards approach cyber risk, and what is their role?

Mark McLaughlin, Palo Alto Networks Chairman and CEO, who shared key questions and insight into conversations board members should have with their CIOs.

What question does McLaughlin say boards typically ask CIOs, and why does he call it a hard question to answer?

"How safe are we? If I gave you one more dollar, how much safer would we be?" He calls it hard to answer because it is not specific enough to be actionable.

What alternative questions does McLaughlin recommend boards ask instead?

How comfortable the board feels in the organisation's security philosophy and architecture for the next three to five years, and how much is being invested in making it more automated and less manual.

What metric does McLaughlin describe as "probably the most important measure you can make"?

Tracking how many attacks the organisation is seeing and how many of those require attention, which he says shows the organisation's level of efficiency.

What thought exercise does McLaughlin propose for boards to challenge their security leaders?

Asking what they would do now if, in five years, they wanted to be twice as secure at half the cost, to force people to think outside the old approach.

Where can readers find the full video of Mark McLaughlin's insights, according to this article?

At the original post on securityroundtable.org, linked in the article.

What partnership does blueAPACHE describe with Palo Alto Networks in this article?

blueAPACHE states it is a Palo Alto Networks premium partner and integrates Palo Alto next generation firewalls at the core of its emPOWER Cloud, emPOWER Network and emPOWER Managed Service solutions.

What single characteristic does McLaughlin say is the biggest thing he sees in progressive boards?

That they challenge their security leaders to think differently, rejecting the old approach that "clearly doesn't work."

Source

• origin post (2017)

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