5 Ways to Get Security and Compliance Buy-in From Leadership

From sourcing the right tools to hiring an all-star team to preparing for annual audits, a lot goes into building and maintaining a strong security and compliance program. But even the most vigilant security practitioners can’t be successful without support from internal leaders.

Getting buy-in from your CEO, COO, and other company leaders is a crucial step toward achieving both your short- and long-term security and compliance goals. For instance, you might need leadership to back you up in order to:

• Purchase new software and tools;

• Hire new personnel and grow your security team;

• Secure funds or resources for an upcoming compliance audit;

• Pursue attestation against a new security standard or framework; or,

• Implement company-wide security training.

Business leaders who understand the importance of establishing and maintaining a strong security posture are also more likely to build privacy best practices into their organizations from the ground up, paving the way for smoother compliance audits and long-term operational resilience.

For security and compliance teams aiming to put their organizations on the path to success, here are five ways to get leadership on your side:

1. Conduct a risk assessment.

Whether your cybersecurity program is well-established or you’re just starting out, conducting a risk assessment is a cost-effective way to determine how prepared your organization is to respond to potential threats and keep stakeholders’ data protected. A risk assessment can be a useful tool to help security teams:

• Identify existing gaps and vulnerabilities within their organization’s ecosystem;

• Ascertain risks posed by third-party vendors;

• Evaluate your organization’s readiness for security audits like SOC 2 and ISO 27001;

• Assess the likelihood and potential impact of a security incident;

• Better understand the current threat landscape; and,

• Communicate about those threats with organizational leadership.

Depending on your objectives and the resources available to you, your security team may conduct an internal risk assessment or work with a third-party firm to get an outsider’s perspective on what you’re doing well and where there are areas for improvement.

In either case, the first step is creating a comprehensive list of your organization’s digital assets. Questions you might ask during this process include:

• What data does your organization collect from users, customers, and stakeholders?

• Where is that information stored, and for how long?

• What devices are employees using, and how are those devices secured?

• What third-party vendors does your organization work with?

• What software tools and applications are used in the daily course of business?

• What data do those vendors and tools have access to?

• What security assessments and certifications have your vendors and service providers completed?

Answering these questions will make it easier to identify the kinds of threats your organization could be vulnerable to as well as better predict the consequences of a potential breach.

At the end of the risk assessment process, your security team will walk away with both quantitative and qualitative data that you can use to demonstrate to leaders the “why” behind each goal you’ve set for your organization. Completing this process on an annual basis can also help you make the case for additional tools and resources as your organization—and its security program—grows and matures.

2. Complete a training exercise.

If your organization's leaders are skeptical about earmarking resources for internal security awareness training, conducting a company-wide diagnostic exercise can help you and your team communicate the importance of regular, engaging security education. For example, you could choose to send out a mock phishing email to employees, then analyze the results and debrief with leadership. In addition to giving employees valuable hands-on experience with issues related to cybersecurity, exercises like these can reveal gaps in employees’ knowledge that can be remediated by additional training.

The most effective training programs are those that take into account what data each individual has access to and how they use that data in their day-to-day work. For instance, employees who work directly with sensitive personal information, like patient health records, will likely need more in-depth training than employees who don’t use computers at all in their roles. 

Members of your company’s leadership team should be among those who receive the most thorough security training. Not only will this help them better understand their own roles in maintaining data security and privacy within the organization, but it will also provide them with a clearer picture of what threats are out there and what resources your team needs to adequately mitigate risks.

3. Build the business case.

To convince leaders across all departments that cybersecurity and compliance should be among your organization’s top priorities, it’s crucial to help them understand the return on investment. Have a frank discussion with your leadership team about the value that today’s consumers place on working with companies that prioritize security and privacy. In a world where users frequently share large swaths of data with businesses and service providers, a strong security posture—backed up with attestations or certifications from an external auditor—is a powerful differentiator that sets your organization apart from the competition. 

It’s also worth mentioning in your talks with leadership that compliance can serve as a boon to your company’s bottom line when it comes time to expand internationally. For example, if you’re trying to make the case to executives that it’s time to grow your compliance program beyond the standard SOC 2 report, you might note that customers outside of North America frequently require vendors to be certified against a framework like ISO 27001. This point can also help you make the case for investing in new software and automation tools like Audora that make it easier for your team to achieve and maintain compliance.

4. Team up with colleagues across your organization.

You’re not in this alone. When making the business case for a new security tool or compliance audit, recruit colleagues outside of your security team to offer their perspectives. For instance, you might work with members of the legal department to put together a presentation for leadership explaining why your organization must maintain compliance against a specific security standard and what resources are required to do so. In another example, members of the sales team could help you communicate to leadership about what potential customers want from your organization in terms of security protocols and processes. 

This works best when you work within an organization where security is baked into the company culture. After all, it’s not just C-suite executives who need to support and care about data security. To have a truly effective security and compliance program, members of all teams must understand the role security plays in the organization’s long-term success and how they, as individuals, fit into that. A company that embraces cybersecurity best practices as part of its culture is more likely to be able to adapt and respond to new and existing threats.

5. Advocate for operational resilience.

Don’t just think about the short-term benefits of achieving your security and compliance goals. Another way to help ensure leaders understand and support your efforts is to explain how each action will set the stage for long-term operational resilience. For instance, if you’re asking company executives to make room in the budget for a new tool to assist with continuous compliance monitoring, clearly outline how that tool will save the organization money down the line. What will the tool do to help streamline your next internal or external audit? How will receiving real-time compliance alerts help your security team better manage potential threats? 

It’s important to also consider your company’s reputation in these talks with leadership. By and large, consumers are willing to offer up their personal data in order to use products and receive services, but they want to work with companies that they know they can trust. This is an important point to make when discussing your security and compliance goals with executives. Establishing a strong security posture and demonstrating its effectiveness through attestations like SOC 2 will help your organization build trust with users and put you in a better position to maintain or restore that trust if—and when—an incident does occur.

Takeaways

Above all, the key to securing buy-in from leadership on your security and compliance initiatives is to arm yourself with talking points, data, and resources that allow you to effectively communicate what you want to do, why, and—most importantly—how you’ll get there. 

Company executives should walk away from their conversations with you with a clear understanding of:

• What your goals are for the organization’s security and compliance program;

• What you need from them to achieve those goals; and,

• Why achieving those goals puts the organization in a stronger position for continued success and resilience in the years ahead.

With this information in your back pocket, you’ll be well-equipped to persuade company leaders to support your compliance efforts and foster a culture of security in your organization from top to bottom. 

Ready to take the next step in growing your security program? Audora puts achieving compliance within reach for organizations of all sizes. Book a demo today to learn more.