The art of making technical risk make sense to executives

In this Help Net Security video, Jay Miller, CISO at Paessler, explains how security leaders can communicate technical risk to executives and board members in terms they understand. The focus is on business impact: financial loss, compliance fines, reputation damage, and productivity. Miller walks through three principles: describe impact in plain language, come prepared with data and a clear narrative, and be transparent about what happened and what still needs fixing.

He uses real examples, including a vulnerability disclosure with a 90-day deadline, a security misconfiguration where an attacker gained brief access, and a merger and acquisition where a poorly secured company needed emergency hardening before any public announcement. In each case, the lesson is the same: skip the technical jargon, frame a story with a beginning and resolution, and give leadership the information they need to make decisions without blame or drama.

Learn more:

• CISO perspective on why boards don’t fully grasp cyber attack risks
• How CISOs can talk cybersecurity so it makes sense to executives
• How CISOs can elevate cybersecurity in boardroom discussions