Security executives need a deputy. Here's why.

The long road of security program development and management taken alone is littered with professional and business risk. Qualified assistance and the right CISO-Deputy relationship will launch a program's efficiency and success to new heights.

Let's face it - the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) role is one of the most difficult executive positions in business today. It's a highly misunderstood role with highly unrealistic expectations. It's the position most responsible for building a program capable of protecting an organization's most critical assets, reputation, customers, employees, and patients. Think about the magnitude of this responsibility and consider whether or not having just one executive focused on it is enough.

While cybersecurity is becoming a more recognizable issue, discussion of the topic in a board room can still feel like talking about outer space and aliens. Protecting a business is highly complex, requires layers upon layers of safeguards, and involves an equal amount of technology and business administration. Unfortunately, many security executives are spending too much time digging through the details of program implementation and not enough time with business leaders, contributing to committees, building strategic plans, and selling the program.

Security leaders need a deputy. Someone that can be trusted to carry the program day to day without dropping it while the CISO is out clearing more space for it to grow. For some, the deputy role can be difficult to justify and sell to the business. Often times a security leader will get a strange look when requesting this position - that look of "isn't the role you're explaining the one you currently fill"? Herein lies the issue. If people are unsure why you need an executive-level lieutenant they likely don't understand the magnitude or complexity of the CISO role in the first place. Security executives need to take ownership of this misunderstanding and justify the need for a right hand, whether it be through a full-time hire or advisory consulting services.

Let's discuss a few of the advantages a security executive gains with the partnership of a strong deputy by their side.

Program Operations and Infrastructure

One of the most common missing pieces in any security program is the infrastructure. Sound protection within a business requires extremely precise efficiency from the security team. Programs around the world rarely find themselves in a position of staffing levels that exceed or even meet their minimum requirements, therefore, ensuring the workflows, processes, and general program infrastructure is intact and maintained is critical. While a CISO is selling initiatives, learning how to align with the business, and making critical day-to-day decisions on behalf of the program, a deputy should be working with the team to build its infrastructure and run day-to-day operations. This includes process flow charts, the details of vulnerability and risk management programs, team charters, governing documentation, metrics and much, much more.

Implementing a solid program infrastructure will significantly reduce the day to day waste security professionals find in many of their conversations, processes, and risk management. It creates greater team efficiency and more opportunity to quickly work through the complex issues security programs are faced with on a regular basis. The deputy role should be overseeing this important initiative and working with other security leaders to help manage the operational side of a program for the CISO.

Strategic Success and Program Measurement

A well documented and executed strategic plan can often be what defines a program's long-term success. While actual security comes in practice and execution, your strategic plan sets the table for near, mid, and long-term direction and decision-making. There's risk in building a strategy alone. Strategic planning in cybersecurity should be a collaborative approach, experiences from several security executives, and a thoughtful method of prioritization and goals.

A good security strategy aligns well with the business, produces goals based on risk, evidence, and resources, and can be tracked to measure overall program success on a regular basis. Being strategic doesn't happen once per year. It's an ongoing initiative that requires significant time and effort from a security executive, as it should. A deputy should be heavily involved in this process, sharing another executive's perspective, tracking program goals, and regularly reporting the status of the programs successes and failures back to the CISO.

Continuity

Security professionals are in extreme demand at the moment, and good security executives are no exception. The Bureau of Labor Statistics claims that there are currently 2.2 million unfilled cybersecurity roles. While a small fraction of these open roles is at an executive level, CISO's are always a phone call away from an opportunity worth pursuing . Continuity is key to ensuring the program remains healthy and well-led in the short-term absence of a CISO.

Whether it be a full-time deputy position or a virtual deputy CISO contracted through advisory services, businesses need continuity in the executive cybersecurity ranks. Someone who can not only keep the lights on but continue driving the program forward on an interim basis until the next CISO is hired. In some cases, a deputy is the clear successor to the CISO, putting organizations in a favorable long-term position and rewarding them for having the foresight to hire a deputy in the first place.

It's up to security leaders to justify the need for a good deputy or the assistance of an executive consultant. The long road of security program development and management taken alone is littered with professional and business risk. Qualified assistance and the right CISO-Deputy relationship will launch a program's efficiency and success to new heights. If you're a security leader, spend the next couple of days reflecting on the different issues and tasks you're dealing with as they arise. Ask yourself if your time could be better spent elsewhere - possibly recruiting more executive support, being more strategic than tactical, or preparing programmatic overviews for board-level presentations.

For more information about Deputy CISO services, please contact info@advosec.com

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