Why time is a headache for CISOs
The CISO is not a superhero (although... we talk about that here), so in order to try to solve a problem, you have to identify the cause. So in this "CISO and the race against time" challenge, what are the reasons that might explain why the CISO always has that unpleasant feeling of "never doing enough"?
Working time split between several assignments
Cyber risks affect all areas of business and all levels of the organization, so the CISO works across the board, which explains how their time is divided up (figures from the 2020 edition of the CLUSIF study "IT threats and security practices in France"):
- Technical aspects (security architecture, project monitoring, etc.): 29%
- Functional aspects (risk analysis, security policy, etc.): 25%
- Operational aspects (rights management, administration, etc.): 21%
- Communication/awareness: 14%
- Legal aspects (evidence gathering, user charter, etc.): 11%
In itself, this distribution might not be a problem if the CISO did not have to deal with a lack of integration of their role within the company's processes and a lack of suitable, dedicated tools to organize themselves! (Teaser: see the next article, which discusses dashboards and the indispensable Excel for CISOs...)
Cybersecurity and corporate culture
The cross-functional nature of their duties places CISOs in a position of considerable dependence, both on senior management, which allocates the cybersecurity budget, and on the teams, which have a role to play in applying security rules and reporting information.
However, many CISOs struggle to engage and unite their community and waste time on tasks that add no value, such as chasing up teams that are slow to fill in a dashboard or correcting incidents that could have been avoided if they had been consulted beforehand.
The lack of tools to manage cybersecurity
The CISO isn't the only one who wants to win the race after the fact. Today, all departments have management tools that give them a 360° view of their activity. The sales department has CRM (customer relationship management) software, while the finance department has real-time data thanks to ERP.
The CISO, meanwhile, has a number of tools at their disposal, ranging from the most common solutions (antivirus and antimalware, antispam, firewall, etc.) to more specific tools (IDS probes, SIEM, Network Access Control) and programming and maintenance consoles.
However, none of these technical aids relate to piloting, which explains why the RSSI still has to devote a lot of time to this task:
- on the one hand, to the creation of his own management tools when he took up his position
- on the other hand, to their regular updating, with adjustments to their functionality
In practice, the CISO therefore devotes a large part of his or her time to creating and adapting Excel spreadsheets, not to mention the few days each month spent aggregating data so that it can be presented to senior management.
What solutions can give CISOs more time?
For the CISO to win the race after the bell, the focus must be on optimizing and streamlining their actions.
Best practices to adopt
On a daily basis, each CISO can try to minimize time-consuming and tedious tasks by automating whatever can be automated and making the most of opportunities to collaborate effectively with all stakeholders.
Here are three avenues that could be worth exploring:
- Creating templates
Which tables are used most often? Which presentation works best with the executive committee? What type of questionnaire do teams respond to most quickly? To avoid "reinventing the wheel" for each presentation or data collection, the simplest solution for the CISO is to build a library of "templates" (Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations) that can be used as recurring templates.
- Agile methods for team management
Moving projects forward, resolving difficulties encountered by teams, motivating employees... all of this takes time, but it takes even longer when there is no follow-up or momentum. To facilitate their community, CISOs can therefore use meeting formats that are regular, short, and highly structured.
These can take several forms, such as weekly (maximum 1 hour) or daily (a few minutes, usually standing up). In both cases, the objective remains the same: to review what has been done and what remains to be done, removing any obstacles to achieving the objectives.
- Tools other than those dedicated to cybersecurity
There are now many tools available that, while not specifically designed for CISOs, can still be useful to them. It is up to each CISO to find the tools that best suit their needs from the range of collaborative and project management tools available. For example, Trello is an interesting solution for tracking day-to-day activities and projects, with notifications and alerts. Tools such as Slack and Teams can facilitate collaboration with all stakeholders on a project.
Tenacity to regain quality time
Tenacy is a flexible and collaborative SaaS platform that presents itself as the leading cybersecurity management solution. It aims to improve the organization of the CISO, saving them valuable time in many areas:
- Dashboard configuration: configuration of indicators specific to security policy, preconfigured indicators, customizable, modular, and intuitive design
- Data collection: automatic notifications eliminating the need for follow-ups
- Management of compliance and action plans
- Monitoring of the security program
- Conducting evaluations
By eliminating time-consuming tasks and providing a 360° view of cybersecurity, Tenacy allows every CISO to free up time to focus on the strategic aspects of their role.
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