Dawn Cappelli

If you were a CISO five and a half years ago you might already have a playbook for increasing your security team’s vigilance in the wake of recent events between the US, Iran, and Israel. Why? This is not the first time the threat level – including cyber threats – from Iran has escalated. In January 2020, a US drone strike killed Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani, a powerful figure in Iran.

As the boundaries between IT and OT environments blur and regulators move to bolster ICS cybersecurity across critical infrastructure sectors, the role of the corporate CISOs (chief information security officers) are increasingly pressured to make the monitoring and securing of OT (operational technology) infrastructure essential to their role.

Securing C-Level buy-in is becoming increasingly crucial for implementing cybersecurity measures across industrial and operational environments. Support from top management helps to ensure appropriate resource allocation and emphasizes the importance of implementing cybersecurity in the organizational structure. C-level executives play a critical role in integrating cybersecurity practices by setting the tone of seriousness and protocol compliance from top to bottom.