1. Why the threat landscape keeps CEOs awake at night
The biggest challenge facing companies now is that cyber attackers are constantly innovating. Protection is a moving target that is high risk and poses a genuine value threat to your company.
Expanding attack surfaces add further complexity: cloud, remote work and complex supply chains, are creating more opportunities for disruption. AI is a significant growth opportunity, but it opens up new governance requirements and exposes companies to more risk of data leakages. As high-profile breaches (e.g. JLR, M&S and Co-op) are front of mind, the idea that they could be next is what keeps CEOs up at night, with many CISOs admitting their firms are unprepared for the current rate of pace of attack change.
2. Detection, response, and automation: Winning the speed race
Given this pace of change, what do you need in your organisation to stay ahead of the threat?
- Advanced threat detection (XDR, 24/7 monitoring) is critical to spot attacks early
- Automation (SOAR, AI/ML) reduces alert fatigue and enables rapid, consistent response
- Playbooks created ahead of time means avoiding time-wasting decisions when speed is critical
If you don’t detect an attack fast, and if you don’t have a response plan in place, incidents can spiral into a crisis that puts the whole company at risk.
3. Cyber as a value driver: Turning security into growth
How do we see this as an investor? It is clear that strong security is now a differentiator, not just a cost centre. Cyber-native companies can demonstrate value protection procedures, but more importantly, they have a greater opportunity to access regulated markets and command premium pricing. This is also now priced in – robust posture can add 5-25% to valuations and, importantly, means management teams can crack on with growth plans straight away post-deal, rather than trying to shore up security.
4. Compliance, culture, and the CEO’s role
With these changes to threat level, combined with regulatory pressure such as GDPR and sector-specific rules, the importance within businesses is growing. Cyber and data compliance is a Board-level item, and from there, security culture must be embedded across the business.
CEOs must lead from the front: proactive, embedded security beats reactive fixes every time.
