According to a survey conducted by Navisite, Only 45% of American businesses have a chief information security officer. This means that more than half (55%) of US businesses don’t even have a chief information security officer. Another study shows that 90% of businesses who have a CIO don’t hire a CISO. Why are so many businesses going without a CISO?

Sistla Vaishnavi, a UK-based principal at Riviera Partners answers this question when she said, “If it is a larger business then they will need to hire a team behind the (CISO). They will need architects, they will need a security and operations center, they will need engineers. So, then the cost of resources kind of expands.”

This makes them a soft target to threat actors and vulnerable to data breaches and cybersecurity attacks. If your business is one of them and is still confused whether you should hire a chief information security officer or not, then this article is for you. In this article, you will learn about seven signs your company must hire a chief information security officer.

7 Signs Your Company Needs A CISO

Here are seven signs your company needs a chief information security officer.

1. Your Business Operates In a Highly Regulated Industry

Whether your business operates in a highly regulated industry such as finance, healthcare or legal or are working on federal government projects, having a CISO is a must. The tighter regulations, more stringent compliance requirements is forcing businesses to hire a chief information security officer.

Expect this trend to continue and even multiply, as more new regulations take effect. This means that your business won’t be able to get away without a CISO especially if you operate in a highly regulated industry.

2. You Have Been a Victim of Data Breach or Cyber Attacks

If your business has ever been a victim of data breaches and cybersecurity attacks, you might be aware of the financial and reputation damage it can do to your business. Imagine being without a CISO and then being targeted by one of those threat actors.

Your business will be a sitting duck ready to be struck. Your businesses will not be able to defend themselves let alone recover from these attacks. Most businesses who went through this ordeal understand the pain associated with it and usually hire a chief information security officer immediately after the incident.

3. Your Company is Growing Rapidly

As your business grows, the number of people working in your company, the number of customers you are servicing and the number of business partners also grows. The amount of data you might be storing and managing grows exponentially.Managing all this and much more without a chief information security officer is impossible. That is why it is imperative for businesses to hire a chief information security officer as they expand.

4. Your Attack Surface is Increasing

As mentioned above, increase in employees, customers and data also bring about another problem, growing attack surface. More people will connect to your network with different devices and access your organization resources. Both human and non human identities grow. The Internet of things and bringing your own device will further add fuel to the fire. The end result is usually a massive attack surface, which gives threat actors dozens of different targets to hit.

We have not even talked about the tools and third party integrations and application programming interfaces that the majority of businesses use these days. Add that to the equation and it becomes a daunting challenge to reduce your enterprise attack surface and secure sensitive business data. Not having a CISO to reduce the enterprise attack surface will only make the situation worse.

5. Your Clients and Investors are Demanding a CISO

There are instances where your business might be losing customers and trust due to a cybersecurity incident. On other occasions, your clients and investors might force your business to hire a chief information security officer. In both cases, you do not have an option but to hire a chief information security officer.

Having a chief information security officer at the top can go a long way in minimizing the cybersecurity risk of your business. A chief information security officer can not only create a cybersecurity policy but can implement it too on Buy dedicated servers so businesses won’t experience any slip ups in cybersecurity.

6. Board Members Want to Hire a CISO

Gone are the days when chief information security officers used to work in isolation. They now enjoy a hot seat at the board table. They are now an integral part of decision making. That is why sometimes the demand to hire a chief information security officer might come from none other than board members.

With board members taking cybersecurity seriously and cybersecurity being on top of their agendas, expect their voices and demands to grow louder with the passage of time. Board members will not only help you buy VPS by approving a budget for it but they can also force you to hire a chief information security officer.

Focus on creating a culture of cybersecurity and weave it into your organization fabric. Make it a shared responsibility instead of leaving everything to the cybersecurity team. Hiring a chief information security officer can help with all that and much more.

7. Your Competitors Have Been Breached

Some industries are targeted more often by cyberattackers than others. If your business operates in an industry which is frequently targeted by cyberattackers, you must hire a chief information security officer.

If your direct competitors have also experienced a data breach or cybersecurity attack, this is a clear warning sign that it is not a matter of whether you will be targeted or not but a matter of when you will be targeted. Having a chief information security officer on your side can help you minimize the damage from cybersecurity incidents and help you in recovering from these cybersecurity incidents.

Do you have a chief information security officer or have experienced any of these signs? Share your feedback with us in the comments section below.