Among many other things, a content marketer’s job is to provide prospects and clients the information they need to make educated buying decisions. A study by Kaspersky Lab sheds some light on the content CISOs need to be successful—and empower them to purchase your security solutions.
One of the security industry’s favorite mantras is, "It’s not if you’ll be attacked, but when." Turns out, content marketers may be preaching to the choir. According to research from Kaspersky Lab, 84% of CISOs in North America believe cybersecurity breaches are inevitable. CISOs globally report that financially motivated criminal gangs and malicious insiders are the biggest IT security risks their businesses face. The most critical consequences of a cyberattack are reputational damage (28%) and financial damage (25%).
The elusive return on investment
So, what’s the issue? Turns out—even though 60% of North American survey respondents expect their security budgets to increase in the future—CISOs are having difficulty getting the funds they need to protect their organizations. The problem says Kaspersky: "It’s almost impossible for [CISOs] to offer a clear return on investment (ROI) or 100% protection from cyberattacks." In fact, more than a third of CISOs report that they can’t secure their required IT security budgets because they can’t guarantee there won’t be a breach.
Therein lies the opportunity. Boards of directors must be educated on the inevitability of an attack and how today’s technologies reduce risk. Executives must understand the difference between allowing an attacker to run rampant in the IT environment and having the capabilities in place to identify and shut down malicious activity before it leads to real damage. Executives need to learn that security strategies must evolve if there’s any hope of surviving a breach.
Meanwhile, CISOs and other security leaders must learn how to measure and communicate risk levels in terms that executives will understand. They need to learn how to explain concepts like dwell time, mean time to detect, and mean time to respond.
Take-aways for content marketers
With only 26% of security leaders reporting that they are members of the board at their respective businesses, we can reasonably assume that these leaders can benefit from content that will help them engage and educate top decision makers. Provide content that educates security leaders on how to bridge that gap between the security organization and the business. Give security leaders insights into the boardroom and how to facilitate change. Offer easily digestible content that can be distributed to business executives.
In other words, help security leaders help themselves. Because ultimately, it won’t matter how much your prospects believe they're under attack if they can’t communicate that effectively to those who control the purse strings.