Business Lab

Executives need to clearly communicate risks but also bring context to data. Tech talk is out: speaking the same language will win the day. It’s drilled into the heads of board directors and the C-suite by scary data-breach headlines, lawyers, lawsuits, and risk managers: cybersecurity is high-risk. It’s got to be on the list of a company’s top priorities. But how many directors get lost in the technicalities of technology? The challenge for a chief information security officer (CISO) is talking to the board of directors in a way they can understand and support the company. Niall Browne, senior vice president and chief information security officer at Palo Alto Networks, says that you can look at the CISO-board discussion as being a classic sales pitch: successful CISOs will know how to close the deal just like the best salespeople do. “That's what makes a really good salesperson: the person that has the pitch to close” he says. “They have the ability to close the deal. So they ask for something.”  “For ages,”