A Multimillion-Dollar Risk: How CEOs Can Better Assess Cybersecurity Threats
Every CEO and CFO understands how to quantify operational risk. Market volatility, supply chain disruptions, regulatory compliance — these are all baked into financial projections and boardroom discussions. Yet, when it comes to cyber risk, most companies are flying blind. And that opens them up to potential breaches that can cost, on average, $4.8 million, according to IBM's 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report.
The problem isn’t a lack of data. Security teams are drowning in it. Every day, chief information security officers receive thousands of findings — alerts, vulnerabilities, compliance gaps — but lack the clarity to answer the one question that matters most to the business and one that CEOs are always asking: “How does this affect us?”
The Current Challenges With Assessing Risk
Picture this: A competitor just suffered a major cyberattack. The CEO turns to the CISO and asks, “Are we at risk?” The CISO hesitates. It’s not that they don’t know their environment — it’s that they don’t have the tools to correlate internal security gaps with external threats in real time. The sheer volume of alerts, combined with siloed security tools, makes it nearly impossible to extract actionable intelligence from the noise. You’ve given your CISO budget and they’ve used it well, and those tools are needed. But they just can’t talk to each other or give a holistic picture of your overall cyber risk posture.
This isn’t just frustrating; it’s dangerous. When this happens, companies aren’t just exposed to cyber risk — they’re exposed to hidden, unquantified business risk that isn’t making its way into boardroom discussions. As cyber incidents become more frequent, more expensive and more scrutinized by regulators, a potential oversight becomes more costly.
Why Leaders Should View Cyber Risks as Business Risks
For years, cybersecurity has been treated as a technical issue delegated to security teams. But as digital transformation accelerates, cyber risk has become business risk, and business risk is a CEO’s responsibility.
Regulatory bodies are cracking down, shareholder scrutiny is increasing and cyber incidents now have direct financial consequences — from legal penalties to stock price dips. CEOs can no longer afford to take a hands-off approach. Just as digital transformation has reshaped customer engagement, operations and finance, it must also reshape cyber risk management.
How to Use AI to Navigate Risk
CEOs can drive the adoption of AI to bridge the gap between cybersecurity and business decision-making. In the same way AI is optimizing supply chains and personalizing customer experiences, it can correlate cyber threats with business risk and help answer critical questions, such as:
• What are the top three cyber risks that could cost us the most money this quarter?
• How do today’s emerging attack patterns impact our financial exposure?
• Are we investing in the right security initiatives, or just checking compliance boxes?
By applying AI and automation, security teams can cut through the noise — reducing thousands of findings to the few that actually matter. Instead of treating all risks equally, organizations can prioritize based on both likelihood and financial impact. This is the kind of insight that belongs in boardroom discussions.
Here's how CEOs can begin to integrate AI and cybersecurity to make better business decisions:
Push for Quantification
Cyber risk should be measured in financial terms, just like any other business risk. There are proven solutions available if you look for them. Your CISO probably already has some ideas.
Demand Clear Answers and Provide the Necessary Support
CISOs should be able to articulate risk exposure in real time — not just provide security metrics. That means as a CEO, you must be bought into transforming your cyber operations just like you've digitally transformed other departments.
Audit and Assess Tools
As you evaluate tools and partners, look for solutions that deliver rapid integration, real-time insights and automation that aligns with your existing frameworks. I recommend prioritizing platforms that offer explainable AI and measurable time to value — and avoid those that require long deployments or rely heavily on manual effort.
In today’s digital economy, trust and security are not just risk factors, they’re business differentiators. I believe cyber risk is the boardroom issue of the decade. The only question is whether CEOs will step up and address it — or let hidden risks continue to compound off their balance sheet.
This article was written by Jerry Layden from Forbes and was legally licensed through the DiveMarketplace by Industry Dive. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com.
