A C-suite united on cyber-ready futures

Findings from the 2023 Global Digital Trust Insights

It’s a bold new world in business

Driven by events no one could have foreseen, leaders in recent years have pushed their companies and themselves beyond their comfort zone: out of the office to remote workplaces, into the cloud and along chains of supply that are nearly completely digital. And with each new venture has come new cyber risks.

Good news: CISOs and cyber teams have risen to the challenge, and other C-suite executives have joined forces with them.

Collaborating to create a cyber-ready future

Our latest findings from our 2023 Global Digital Trust Insights survey—reflecting the views of over 3,500 business, security and IT leaders across various industries, including 138 professionals in Canada—show that cybersecurity has become a dynamic field, quickly adjusting and shifting to keep pace with business inventiveness.

CISOs are seizing the initiative, getting the go-ahead to truly lead—to step out of their independent cyber-specialist role and into one of partnering with not just a few executives, but throughout the entire C-suite and board.

But the goalposts keep moving. There’s more work to do—and in a challenging economic environment. Several Canadian insights from this year’s survey show these C-suite collaborations have never been more critical for organizations in this country:

Fewer than 40% of Canadian respondents say they’ve fully mitigated the risks their bold moves have incurred since 2020, such as enabling hybrid and remote work, accelerated cloud adoption and increased use of Internet-of-Things technologies.
87% of Canadian respondents say they’re experiencing greater external demands for disclosures of cyber incidents and practices. But only 43% say they’re confident they can provide the required information about a significant incident within the required reporting time after the incident.
While more than six in ten Canadian respondents say their organization develops a broad understanding of the risks they face, only 38% of Canadian respondents report looking beyond high-priority critical systems and processes and including the secondary and tertiary dependencies on which their organization relies.
Data security and privacy are the Achilles’ heel of many organizations. Nearly half (46%) of Canadian respondents say they might sometimes use customer data without express consent. And 49% might not always vet all the third parties and partners with whom they share customer data.

Globally, 46% of CEOs want to empower the CISO to collaborate with the C-suite on security in the next year. It’s exactly what’s needed for the tougher challenges ahead. How can each of you continue to make a difference? Where should CISOs and cyber teams wield influence for the greatest effect? Read the C-suite playbook on cybersecurity and privacy, featuring our latest survey, Global Digital Trust Insights, to learn how executives can work together for cyber-ready futures.