The Top Stories from Around the Web: March 2025
To stay informed and proactive, we help CISOs stay abreast of the latest trends and developments in the cybersecurity landscape. This collection of news stories from this past month provides valuable insights into emerging trends, industry best practices, and expert perspectives, empowering CISOs to make informed decisions and strengthen their cybersecurity postures.
Here are summaries of the top CISO stories for March 2025:
1. 3 ‘must-have’ skills for leading a cybersecurity team in 2025
Source: SC Media
CISOs in 2025 must excel in communication, business acumen, and regulatory expertise to lead effectively. They need to translate complex technical issues into business terms for executives while ensuring security teams understand overarching company objectives. Strong communication fosters collaboration across all levels, helping CISOs gain buy-in for security initiatives. A deep understanding of business strategy is also crucial, allowing CISOs to align cybersecurity efforts with company goals and demonstrate security’s role as a business enabler. Additionally, as global regulations like GDPR and CCPA evolve, staying ahead of compliance requirements is essential to mitigate legal and financial risks. With more CISOs now reporting directly to CEOs, they face greater scrutiny but also have a unique opportunity to shape business success. By strengthening these critical skills, CISOs can navigate the shifting threat and regulatory landscape while proving the value of cybersecurity as an integral part of the organization.
2. Cybersecurity: Are CISOs Fighting The Right Battles?
Source: Forbes
A Splunk CISO Report 2025 highlights the growing influence of CISOs in the boardroom, but many still struggle with budgets, soft skills, and the demands of their role. Most CISOs come from technical backgrounds and find it challenging to navigate executive environments, often defaulting to technology rather than engaging as business leaders. This disconnect weakens trust with senior executives, who see cybersecurity as just another business risk rather than a purely technical issue. Many CISOs mistakenly believe that logic, reasoning, and financial metrics will win support, but business decisions are often driven by short-term priorities and cognitive biases. Executives already understand cyber threats are inevitable; they don’t need explanations—they need results. Instead of proposing ambitious, costly plans, CISOs should focus on execution excellence, demonstrating impact with existing resources. Building trust through consistent delivery will, in turn, unlock more support and resources over time.
3. Smart cybersecurity spending and how CISOs can invest where it matters
Source: HelpNetSecurity
CISOs face growing pressure to allocate cybersecurity budgets effectively, yet increased spending doesn’t always lead to better security. A rising trend in cyber budgets hasn’t reduced incidents, often due to fragmented architectures, tool redundancy, and compliance-driven spending that overlooks real threats. Many organizations overspend on overlapping tools, underutilized technologies, and regulatory requirements while neglecting critical areas like incident response, continuous security training, and advanced threat detection. To optimize investments, CISOs should adopt a risk-based approach, continuously assess security effectiveness, and foster cross-department collaboration. Traditional ROI metrics often fail in cybersecurity, making alternative measures like Return on Mitigation more useful. The key to smarter spending lies in establishing transparency, ensuring investments directly mitigate real risks, and focusing on execution rather than accumulation. The most effective CISOs aren’t those with the largest budgets but those who can clearly demonstrate how every dollar spent strengthens security.
4. How AI Is Reshaping CISO Priorities
Source: The New Stack
AI is reshaping CISO priorities by introducing both new security challenges and opportunities. As vendors rapidly integrate AI-enabled features, the underlying large language models (LLMs) create a new attack surface, potentially leading to widespread security incidents. Proprietary models, with limited transparency, pose risks that attackers can exploit, potentially affecting the broader software ecosystem. Meanwhile, the rise of cloud-native and AI applications demands more adaptive identity management to handle the growing number of nonhuman, service-based identities. Security teams will increasingly leverage AI to automate DevOps security, helping bridge the skills gap and integrate security throughout the development pipeline. Despite AI-driven threats, it also enhances security by automating tasks, identifying vulnerabilities, and improving authentication processes. CISOs must balance compliance with emerging risks while strategically deploying AI-powered solutions to strengthen security and stay ahead of evolving cyber threats.
5. That breach cost HOW MUCH? How CISOs can talk effectively about a cyber incident’s toll
Source: CSO Online
CISOs must effectively communicate the financial toll of cyber incidents to executives, a challenge heightened by rising breach costs. Notable breaches, such as Equifax ($1.4B) and Maersk ($300M), illustrate the steep price of cyberattacks. IBM reports the average global breach cost hit $4.88M in 2024, up 10% from the prior year.
Incident costs fall into direct (e.g., system restoration, ransom payments) and indirect (e.g., regulatory fines, reputational damage) categories, with business disruption being particularly difficult to estimate. While insurance covers some expenses, system improvements post-breach are an out-of-pocket burden.
To improve cost estimation, CISOs should conduct tabletop exercises, maintain a physical incident response plan, and use risk models like FAIR or Monte Carlo simulations. Proactive engagement with leadership ensures preparedness, mitigates risk, and strengthens a CISO’s credibility. Regular discussions tied to real-world incidents help boards grasp the financial stakes before a crisis occurs.
6: Lessons on Attack Attribution for CIOs and CISOs
Source: InformationWeek
Attributing cyberattacks, especially DDoS incidents, is challenging due to botnets masking attackers’ true locations. While attribution is valuable, CISOs must prioritize closing security gaps before investigating attackers’ identities. High-profile cases, like X’s alleged DDoS attack, often spark public scrutiny, but smaller organizations may focus on remediation over attribution.
Attribution efforts require time, resources, and intelligence-sharing. While ransomware gangs often claim responsibility, others falsely take credit for attacks. Definitive attribution isn’t always possible. Collaboration within the security community can strengthen defenses, but liability concerns and reputational risks often deter companies from sharing breach details.
Ultimately, fostering trust and secure channels for sharing threat intelligence can help organizations anticipate and mitigate future attacks.
7. Boards Challenged to Embrace Cybersecurity Oversight
Source: LinkedIn Newsletter
Cybersecurity has become a critical business risk that CEOs and Boards must oversee, elevating CISOs into strategic roles. However, many Board members lack cybersecurity expertise, while CISOs often struggle to translate technical risks into business terms. This creates a communication gap that hinders effective oversight.
Boards must develop frameworks to integrate cyber risk into broader business strategies, making informed decisions without delving into technical minutiae. At the same time, CISOs must refine their communication skills to align cybersecurity with business priorities. Bridging this gap will enable Boards to set clear cybersecurity objectives and support CISOs in delivering strategic risk management.
By evolving together, Boards and CISOs can enhance cybersecurity governance, ensuring it is treated as a fundamental business priority rather than a technical concern.
