Cybersecurity Insights with Contrast CISO David Lindner | 01/10/25

Insight No. 1: Lawyer up, CISOs!

A recent report found that 70% of CISOs have gotten cold feet about the job, given stories of people in their position who’ve been held personally liable for cybersecurity incidents. To protect themselves, CISOs should negotiate for contractual protections such as severance triggered by reporting structure changes, insurance protections, enterprise-paid independent attorney fees, and full indemnification for judgments or penalties related to their official duties.

Insight No. 2: Sticking your head in the sand won’t make you invisible to ransomware attacks

Ransomware is up: Dark Reading's 2024 Strategic Security Survey found that the number of respondents whose organizations were hit by ransomware in 2024 (16%) is higher than those in 2023 (11%). To combat the rising threat, organizations must ditch the "it won't happen to me" mentality and proactively bolster their defenses with robust backups, incident response plans, and employee training focused on identifying and avoiding phishing attacks.

Insight No. 3: Cloud spend is entering the stratosphere

Cloud spend has spiked, and budgets are tightening. What’s a cash-strapped company to do? 
To avoid unexpected cloud costs that can quickly rack up, CISOs should collaborate with CIOs to understand and optimize cloud pricing models, usage patterns and data transfer strategies, ensuring cost-effective security measures.