SAGE Transforms Cyber Defense Planning for Fortune 100 CISO

The Challenge In Depth:

The CISO of one of the world’s largest financial services organizations was struggling to turn a stack of cybersecurity intelligence reports created by an external consulting company into an actionable plan. Usually the reports, which contained a plethora of valuable advice for new controls and mitigations, became outdated shortly after delivery and were relegated to a desk drawer. This meant that the company’s substantial investment in cyber consultants doing pentesting, red teaming and more wasn’t delivering as much value as it should have. 

The CISO had no effective way to translate the information she received into an actionable cyber defense plan. Consequently, she was in a perpetual cycle of outdated planning, struggling to do long-term cyber defense planning because she was always managing the latest crises. 

The CISO also lacked an effective way to convince the Board of Directors to increase her department’s budget. She needed a better way to connect the dots and explain how improved cybersecurity leads to bottom line business growth.

Compounding the problem was the CISOs reliance on a relatively low-tech solution, a basic spreadsheet, for cyber defense planning. 

Without a centralized cyber defense platform, the client faced challenges in tracking projects, policies, and procedures, leading to difficulty in keeping up with daily changes in the threat landscape, business environment, risks, and vulnerabilities. The absence of a standardized method for measuring risk left the client without a clear understanding of the effectiveness of her cybersecurity effectiveness. This led to wasted time and resources and hindered her ability to justify actions and budgets to board and C-level stakeholders. Additionally, translating cybersecurity language into business terms was challenging, making it difficult to convey the positive business impact of cyber security improvements.

The Outcome In Depth

The CISO’s decision to adopt SAGE marked a significant turning point in the way she and her team created and executed their cybersecurity strategy. By implementing SAGE, she gained access to a comprehensive platform tailored to her needs, empowering her to make informed decisions and streamline her workflow. Incorporating the data from consultants’ reports into the platform and using it to create a fuller and up-to-date picture of current threat levels, she witnessed a remarkable improvement in cybersecurity risk management. The platform’s dynamic capabilities allowed her to track risk levels in real-time and understand which actions would have the biggest effects. In a short time, this resulted in a noticeable decrease in overall risk exposure.

SAGE revolutionized the CISO’s day-to-day workflow and department operations. No longer burdened by manual processes and outdated tools, she found herself operating in a more organized and efficient manner. With SAGE’s intuitive interface and advanced features, she was able to prioritize tasks based on their impact and urgency, leading her to take a more proactive approach to cybersecurity. The platform’s ability to analyze business impact data and provide actionable insights enabled her to make strategic decisions  aligned with the company’s business objectives.

Meetings with the Board of Directors and C-Suite were smoother and less stressful because the CISO could provide better information. The SAGE Platform bridged the gap between the CISO and the BoD by presenting data in terms of both risk and financial impact, translating the risk profile into a dollars and cents equation.

Overall, SAGE transformed not only the CISO’s approach to cybersecurity planning but also her job satisfaction and productivity by allowing her to focus on long-term planning and strategic initiatives with confidence and clarity.

From The CISO

“We looked at our risk levels when we started using SAGE versus where they are today and we’re thrilled. Essentially, once we connected our mitigation tasks to the controls and to the risks they are meant to handle, I knew we were on the road to victory. We can see the risk levels going down from month to month and sometimes from week to week.

My work life has become so much more… sane. I make decisions now based on the situation, my team’s time, and budget, and I get to projects that aren’t just ‘emergencies.’

Now I have a better understanding of the effect on my risk profile if I am unable to do certain tasks that are on my team’s list but get postponed due to budget or time. Most importantly, I am able to present my cybersecurity plans in business terms to the board and management.”