Will we have to wait for a new "cyber Pearl Harbor" to become aware of cyber risks? The term "cyber Pearl Harbor" was coined by a U.S. senator after the December 2020 attack on the U.S. federal government, via software supplier SolarWinds. The SolarWinds affair was a global trauma, prompting many organizations to invest in their cybersecurity.

If there's one person in the corporate world who doesn't engage in cyber denial, it's the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). In France, according to Proofpoint's 2022 "Voice of the CISO" report, 80% of CISOs believe that their company is at risk of suffering a major cyber attack in the next twelve months. But this foresight is not enough.

Control, inform, anticipate

Faced with an upsurge in cyber-attacks of all kinds, CISOs are looking for continuous visibility of cyber-risk. Controlling, informing and anticipating: these are the three keys to creating a climate of cyber confidence within the company and its ecosystem.

Together with the purchasing department, the CISO is involved in selecting suppliers and checking their vulnerabilities. In addition to this role, in large groups the CISO is also responsible for informing management of the cyber maturity of the company and its subsidiaries. This is a delicate role, since CISOs must avoid being perceived as intrusive by these same subsidiaries. To do this, they often lack a tool for assessing and managing cyber risk, one that is as discreet as it is effective.

Assessing your cyber posture: a prerequisite

There are two kinds of companies today: those that anticipate cyber risk, and those that suffer from it. A CISO's ability to anticipate cybersecurity issues is, in a way, the link between his or her control and information missions.

This is why Board of Cyber, a leading European player in cyber risk management, has developed its SaaS Security Rating® platform. With its non-intrusive solution for continuously and automatically assessing organizations' exposure to cyber risks on their Internet surface, Board of Cyber meets the needs of CISOs.

Security Rating® is first and foremost an easy-to-use evaluation tool, which automatically produces a clear presentation of cyber performance, as well as an open-source mapping of the company's technical assets. This high value-added information made in Board of Cyber is a crucial step for a CISO who wants either to alert his Board of Directors to the cyber performance of the company and its ecosystem, or to inform a subsidiary about the reality of its cyber posture.

Cyber rating for better anticipation

The continuously updated cyber rating produced by Security Rating® is another indispensable asset for CISOs. Thanks to this rating, which combines all the elements associated with a company's public assets, as well as more behavioral criteria relating to the "cyber hygiene" of its teams, the CISO can share valuable information. Not only is the Board of Cyber rating a powerful communication tool for a cybersecurity manager (informing customers and partners that his or her company excels in this area), it is also a vector of trust (reporting to the Board on the efforts undertaken to improve the company's cyber posture) and a long-term benchmark for committing his or her team to this ongoing effort.

The Security Rating® platform is designed to make life easier for CISOs. Thanks to this unique tool, they are able to produce recommendations and provide information to their Information Systems Department (ISD), to Reduce their risk of being attacked by cybercriminals.

The 2022 "State of Cybersecurity" survey, conducted worldwide by Splunk and Enterprise Strategy Group, found that 87% of CISOs surveyed reported cybersecurity skills or staffing issues. With the tangible data available to CISOs thanks to Board of Cyber, and the time saved by automating the Security Rating® solution, teams will be able to devote more time to dealing with the most critical issues. To lead is to anticipate.