In 2020, with attack surfaces growing due to ongoing digital transformation, as well as an increasingly remote workforce in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s more important than ever for companies to collaborate effectively in order to get the most out of their cybersecurity tools and practices.

1. Cybersecurity and business goals need to be 100% aligned

Experts say that aligning security policy with business goals is a major imperative for their firms. This starts with security teams understanding business issues—such as revenue goals—and business leaders understanding security requirements.

“Collaboration really is the key here, “Determining the value of assets, or what’s going to most heavily impact the business, is a business decision. If the security lead doesn’t have a seat at that table, it’s very hard for them to begin that flow of collaboration.”

Many firms are leveraging risk ratings solutions to effectively prioritize cyber security spending, which also supports revenue goals.

2. Cybersecurity is everyone’s job

Cyber security needs to be a culture-wide core value that relies on constant communication and cooperation. It also requires the empowerment of all employees—even non-security personnel—to do their part to minimize risk.

Thing we need to do better, and that we certainly do at Solicon, is that [cyber security] becomes part of your job. Passion and support from the top down are two of the key areas that make companies successful.

With the right incentives, processes, and tools, any team can have a positive impact on an organization’s security posture.

3. Drive collaboration with third parties and vendors

“security ratings open up a lot of really good dialogue, and in some cases when you start that conversation, that vendor is surprised. They thought they were doing everything right, so it’s a good opportunity for them to make changes in their environment as well.”

The firm is better safe than sorry when it comes to third-party risk management. “We use right tools to evaluate every third party that we do business with.

4. Provide insights that drive executive and board member engagement

Cyber security ratings will become a de-facto standard in the boardroom by 2025. For the Solicon, security ratings are already a vital boardroom communication tool that helps drive engagement.

What we’ve generally found is that the risk ratings solutions have been a real level-setter, it’s easy for executives to track a letter or number rating and have productive conversations about the factors that are driving it.

5. It’s about choosing the right tools

Orchestration is a big go-to word these days. It doesn’t make sense to invest in a tool that isn’t going to work easily with all of your other tools, so API’s are really the name of the game. You can’t invest in something that’s going to be standalone and force you to go off somewhere else to look for answers.

Highlighting the need for seamless workflows, many Solicon customers have found value in Atlas, our questionnaire exchange and validation platform, because it automatically maps Security Ratings data to individual questionnaire responses. With this unique integration of cyber security ratings with vendor-provided responses, our customers can more easily prioritize assessment review, saving security & IT teams countless hours.