Cyber Insights 2025: The CISO Outlook

February 4, 2025 – Published on SecurityWeek

The CISO is the figurehead, and often the scapegoat, for cybersecurity, and business continuity, and regulatory compliance, and data science, and artificial intelligence, and… and so it goes on. But quo vadis? And can you stay the course?

There has never been a single job description for the CISO – the role depends upon each company, its maturity, its size and resources, and the risk tolerance of individual boards. Nevertheless, the primary function of the CISO has continuously expanded from the original technical defense of IT systems to the wider purpose of managing business risk and ensuring business profitability in the face of cyberattacks.

The CISO is no longer just a technical expert but a jack of all trades who must also understand business management, business finance, the legal implications of regulations, the concept of personal privacy, the psychology of company employees, the impact of geopolitics, the potential of artificial intelligence… and the list keeps growing.

Over the pasty few years, there has been a discernible shift towards ‘resilience’ as the aim of security. This makes sense. A growing acceptance that controls may deter attacks but cannot guarantee security against breaches means that surviving a breach is the ultimate goal. Resilience is not a replacement for security, but an addition to security.

“Regarding incidents, ‘it’s not a matter of if, but when’. Having robust resilience capabilities are an absolute must for any organization,” says Gary Brickhouse, CISO at GuidePoint Security. “CISOs must prioritize and ensure resilience programs are in place, aligned with business strategy, and regularly tested. While this may be less of a priority for those CISOs in more mature organizations that already have robust plans in place, it will remain on the priority list due to the ever-expanding threat landscape.”

Read More HERE.