Your Cybersecurity Budget is a Top Organizational Priority

3 minute read

May 2021

Cybersecurity is recognized as an increasingly important annual budget spend, with many organizations declaring their cybersecurity budget a top organizational priority. Some companies have already invested to develop a mature cybersecurity program and are determined to maintain their strong security posture. Other companies find themselves playing catch-up, anxious to at least be on par with their industry colleagues. 

No matter where a company is in its cybersecurity maturity, however, it needs to understand where to invest its cybersecurity budget and how cybersecurity program management tools can help. 

Strategic Insight Informs Cybersecurity Budget Decisions 

Detailed knowledge of company’s cybersecurity posture leads to the development of a thoughtful, strategic budget that drives improvement. Without insight, it’s all just guesswork or worse – reactive 

The integration of a Cybersecurity Program Management (CPM) platform is essential to securing insightThese platforms enable complete, real-time vision into company cybersecurity preparedness; identify security vulnerabilitiesdetermine regulatory/industry compliance, and track cybersecurity-related projects across an organization. 

CISOs need to be more prepared for budget discussions than ever before—they need to know the status of cybersecurity at all points across their enterprise, where they want their program to be in a year, and how they plan to get there. Key components of this include: 

  • Cybersecurity status awareness: Audit, rank and identify threats and risks related to highvalue assets. 
  • Cybersecurity program goal setting: Address security weaknesses, prepare for upcoming industry and regulatory changes and tie these to controls. 
  • Cybersecurity action planning: Select, plan and implement projects to move your program forward and achieve stated goals. 

Creating a Cybersecurity Budget 

An increasin an organization’s cybersecurity focus and budget comes as good news to CISOs—but it also presentsome challenges. CISOs must develop strategic budgets that make a strong business case for funding and investing. Their budgets must be supported by a holistic view into the state of organizational cybersecurity, and they must craft a strategic budget that improves security to ensure that funding is approved for key projects. 

Presenting Projects for Budgetary Approval 

Once an organization has a clear understanding of its cybersecurity status and the goals it wants to achieve it is ready to select and plan projects to reach these goals. 

To increase the likelihood of funding, the CISO must make a strong business case as numerous departments may be clamoring for the same funds. It is important to consider the following when presenting cybersecurity projects for funding: 

  • AudienceMore and more, the CISO is communicating at the C-Suite or Board-level. Knowing the current status and future opportunities for cross-organizational improvement is crucialHelp them gain confidence in cybersecurity projects by providing detail and ensuring transparency. 
  • Reason for the projectNote why the project is needed, how it will work, and the specific benefit(s) it will deliver. Projects should be tied to specific risks and threats and mapped to controls. 
  • Plan and timeline: Detail what’s involved in standing up the project and integrating it into the organization; include a timeline with key milestones. 
  • Budget: Identify all costs and present the costs for alternative solutions along with their pros and cons. 
  • Measurement and verification: Demonstrate how project impact will be assessed and measured following implementation. 
  • Reporting: Provide transparency, insight and a means for tracking all projects including timeline, budget, project owners, and post-implementation assessments 

Leverage Your Successes 

A final point to note is that it is important throughout the process to showcase past successes that demonstrate effectiveness and trustworthiness. Having a record of worthwhile projects completed on time and within budget will help gain trust when seeking new project requests. Tracking in one system that can easily produce board-level reporting across all cybersecurity projects in flight is critical to future success as well.  

Not long ago there was no ability to have a real-time, holistic view of cybersecurity enterprise-wide but with a CPM platform insight is available to enable informed strategic decision making, greater operational efficiency, rapid reporting and quantifiable measurement—all visible to executives in a dashboard or exported report.  

 To learn how to achieve the program oversight that helps support your cybersecurity budget plans, download the Cybersecurity Program Management Reports eBook.

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ProcessUnity is a leading provider of cloud-based applications for risk and compliance management. The company’s software as a service (SaaS) platform gives organizations the control to assess, measure, and mitigate risk and to ensure the optimal performance of key business processes. ProcessUnity’s flagship solution, ProcessUnity Vendor Risk Management, protects companies and their brands by reducing risks from third-party vendors and suppliers. ProcessUnity helps customers effectively and efficiently assess and monitor both new and existing vendors – from initial due diligence and onboarding through termination. Headquartered outside of Boston, Massachusetts, ProcessUnity is used by the world’s leading financial service firms and commercial enterprises. For more information, visit www.processunity.com.