A Look at the CFO Role: Security Investments or Secure Choices? Probably Both!

Investing in IT security, and doing so consciously. This is what every CFO, Chief Financial Officer, the person who controls the budget, should do for their company.

The essential element of every company is the brand. It is what distinguishes it and keeps its reputation alive. It is what customers trust. But what would happen if IT systems were attacked by skilled and malicious hackers?

On average, the cost of damage caused by attacks on the IT systems of large American companies is about 5 million dollars. This figure comes from The Ponemon Institute, an independent research organization on privacy, data protection and information-security policy. In Italy companies are smaller on average, but they are not less exposed. Such a cost might be small for large companies, but it is fatal for medium and small ones, which could be pushed out of the market.

How can this be avoided? CFOs should be willing to invest in security, and to do it carefully. Decisions must be made with awareness, which is why CFOs should be prepared and informed about what resources are being invested in.

Buying expensive, advanced protection systems without first analyzing the problems and gaps in every company policy could lead to greater economic damage: useless protection costs and the insult of suffering system damage anyway.

An excellent choice would be to rely on breach insurance policies, in addition to standard business insurance. Unfortunately, insurance products of this type still have high costs.

Above all, all possible attack scenarios should be simulated and the different vulnerabilities discovered. And in the event of a successful cyberattack, the damage should be contained and the company's economic losses reduced to a minimum.

Do you think your e-commerce site, company website or Internet-exposed network is not adequately protected? EasyAudit will be your solution for identifying the vulnerabilities it is exposed to and making the system secure.