The CISO's Evolving Playbook: Mastering Cybersecurity Through Strategic Awareness and Governance

Security Careers

10 Jul 2025 — 9 min read

Photo by Rodeo Project Management Software / Unsplash

In today's digital landscape, the role of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) has expanded dramatically, moving beyond mere technical oversight to become a critical business leader and partner in corporate growth. Modern security threats, exemplified by ransomware, increasingly bypass traditional technical and administrative defenses by targeting the "human factor" – the awareness and behavior of employees. This document outlines key aspects of the CISO's mission, emphasizing the necessity of integrating information protection into corporate strategy, establishing robust governance, and cultivating a company-wide security culture.

I. The Evolving Mandate of the CISO

The CISO's core mission is to support the sustained growth of the company by minimizing security risk inherent in the organization, business, services, and concerning executives and staff members. This involves:

Translating Technical Security into Business Value: Traditionally, information protection focused on confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information assets, often remaining in the realm of technical experts. However, a CISO must explain the role and value of information protection to top management in terms of corporate management, demonstrating how it can even create customer value, as seen with features like fingerprint verification for privacy.
Navigating Corporate-Level Risks: Security risk is a corporate-level concern, encompassing legal, financial, reputation, and management risks. The CISO must understand how security issues can escalate, for instance, a security problem becoming a public reputation issue, leading to legal and financial repercussions.

II. Information Protection Governance: The Foundation for Resilience

Information Protection Governance refers to the structure for making managerial decisions on information protection, integrated within the broader corporate governance.

The Indispensable Role of Top Management:
- Top management is the final decision-maker on organization, workforce, and budget for information protection.
- They must appoint and empower an executive-level CISO to manage company-wide security risk.
- Key responsibilities include approving and supporting information protection programs and investments, and fostering company-wide communication and collaboration.

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Effective Communication with Top Management:
- CISOs must frame security discussions within the context of managerial objectives, business strategies, and related managerial risks.
- When introducing new security policies or systems, explain them as managerial judgments related to sales, operating profit, legal affairs, or customer impact, not just technical issues. Prioritize security issues based on limited resources.
Optimal Organizational Structure for the CISO:
- The most desirable structure is a CISO under the direct control of the CEO (a real C-level executive). This grants the necessary authority for company-wide information protection, secures budget and workforce, ensures visibility of company-wide security risks, and facilitates collaboration.
- Challenges with Alternative Structures:
  - CISO under CIO: While common due to IT security overlap, this can lead to difficulty in securing company-wide visibility and control, potential clashes between information protection (control) and IT operations (convenience), and a risk of IT-centered decisions overshadowing broader security risks.
  - CISO under Management Support (e.g., CFO/HR): Offers better company-wide visibility and atmosphere for collaboration than under CIO, as it often has an internal control role.
- The CISO needs to proactively plan and implement changes if the organizational structure hinders efficient security work.
The Information Protection Management Committee:
- This committee is the main body for company-wide collaboration for information protection.
- Composition is crucial: Ideally, the CEO serves as chairperson, with key executives as members, ensuring managerial oversight and decision-making power. ISMS-P emphasizes executive participation, viewing committees composed solely of working-level heads as improper for important decisions.
- Agenda Focus: Should address major company-wide issues from a managerial viewpoint, such as laws, severe security incidents, or major policies with company-wide influence, rather than purely technical items.
- A working-level consultative body, chaired by the CISO, can assist by reviewing agenda items and facilitating quick responses to issues.

III. Core Duties and Responsibilities of the CISO

Beyond governance, the CISO's duties are multifaceted, encompassing legal compliance, system management, and proactive measures:

Legal Compliance: CISOs must be intimately familiar with relevant laws, such as the Information and Communications Network Act and the Personal Information Protection Act. These laws dictate requirements for personal information collection, use, provision, destruction, and technical/managerial protective measures. The CISO must also stay updated on legal amendments and government trends.
Information Protection Management System (ISMS): CISOs oversee the establishment and operation of a systematic risk management system, ensuring consistent information protection activities through documented policies, guidelines, and manuals. This documentation helps reduce damage scope and enables prompt response during incidents.
Security Vulnerability Management: Duties include analysis, evaluation, and improvement of information protection weaknesses. This involves pre-inspection of information protection during system establishment (planning, design, realization, test phases) and managing security risks post-release.
Incident Prevention and Response: CISOs are responsible for preventing and responding to computer security incidents and designing/realizing security measures. This includes understanding and preparing for threats like supply chain attacks, cryptojacking, personal information leakage, and ransomware.
Risk Mitigation: The CISO must understand the organization's information protection level, considering factors beyond just technical solutions, such as employee awareness. They must continuously analyze external incidents to establish internal solutions and regulations.
Collaboration and Communication Capacity: Information protection work is company-wide, requiring collaboration between the Information Protection department and other departments. CISO personnel need strong communication and collaboration skills to take the initiative in this.

IV. The Human Factor: Cultivating a Security-Aware Culture

The sources emphasize that "ultimately what is the most important is humans, i.e., the executives and staff members of the company". More than half of information security threats originate from human factors, yet general employee perception of information protection importance (81.5%) often contradicts the reality of human-induced threats (60.4%). This "discrepancy between perception and reality" stems from a tendency to choose "dangerous but convenient methods" and resistance to administrative security controls.

To address this, CISOs must stimulate "thought switches" to change mindsets from "natural convenience" to "convenient safety". This involves a multi-stage approach:

Step 1: Contact Identification – Understanding Organizational Culture:
- Organizational Orientation: Determine if the organization is "speed-centric" or considers "speed and direction". Identify if there's a correction process for wrong directions.
- Compliance Level: Assess familiarity with relevant laws, whether laws are applied to work, and if changes in laws are managed. Educate employees on criminal liabilities for fraudulent behavior.
- Understanding Security Incident Trends: Evaluate awareness of industry-specific incidents, channels for disseminating incident cases, and the establishment/application of security countermeasures.
Step 2: Step-by-Step Application of Awareness-Raising Techniques:
- Team Play: Information security is a team play; understand the "security control acceptance rate" of other departments and adjust the speed of control application accordingly. Speed up controls with a reasonable basis (e.g., legal violations).
- Communication:
  - "Security by Design": Encourage security reviews from the planning stage of new businesses/services.
  - "In the Other Person's Language": Communicate using the business processing methods and key terms of other departments, avoiding overly technical jargon.
  - Positive, Not Negative: Offer "how-to" solutions rather than just stating "not possible" to prevent circumvention.
  - Emotion Management: As a "control department," the information security team must maintain professionalism and manage emotions during interactions.
  - Pre-Communication for New Controls: Always communicate the purpose, basis, and compliance methods of new security controls company-wide before application, ideally with CEO approval.
- The Aesthetics of Waiting: For non-risky situations, guide rather than control. Continuously explain security processes. Let departments know you are waiting for their security review requests to foster ownership. Provide enough time for acceptance of new controls. Utilize the "nudge effect" through indirect, gentle methods alongside direct controls.
- Focus on the Cause, Not the Phenomenon: Investigate the root cause of security violations instead of just addressing the symptoms. Tailor security measures to the identified cause for greater effectiveness and reduced resistance.
- Grounds for Investment in Information Security:
  - Laws and Guidelines: Leverage recommendations like the Information and Communications Network Act's guideline for investing over 5% of the IT budget in information protection to persuade management.
  - Judicial Precedents: Utilize court rulings on personal information leakage cases (e.g., KT, Open Market, Pompu cases) to highlight corporate responsibility, duty of care, and consequences of cost-cutting on security, thereby securing budget and investment.
Information Security Education Plan:
- Shift from "duty" to a "meaningful" experience.
- Interpret, Don't Just Deliver: Focus on the good and bad outcomes of compliance/non-compliance.
- Cause Over Phenomenon in Education: Use real-world violation cases and their specific causes to make policies more relatable and impactful.
- Incorporate cases witnessed during branch visits.
- Highest Level Possible for Instructors: Ideally, CISOs or high-ranking personnel should deliver education to new employees or specific groups, leveraging the rank system for better reception.
- Emphasize Employee Safety: Focus on how information protection contributes to the safety and privacy of employees themselves, rather than solely on compliance obligations.
- Penetrate Daily Life: Proactively offer explanations and follow-up on informal security inquiries, turning daily interactions into learning opportunities.
- Discovery of Recognition Conversion Devices: Use news articles or historical events to stimulate emotional connections and shift perspectives (e.g., the dangers behind free Wi-Fi, smartphone Bluetooth, IP cameras, or SNS).
- Concise Messaging: Use short, empowering messages to convey important policies due to limited training time.
- Presenting Unrecognized Facts: Highlight real but unrecognized dangers to make employees understand "information protection is my problem!".

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V. Security Culture Settlement: Quantification and Continuous Improvement

As Peter Ferdinand Drucker famously said, "Culture eats strategy". Moving beyond individual awareness, the ultimate goal is to establish security as an organizational culture, which is more resilient to individual changes.

Maintenance and Improvement Strategies:
- Leverage Opportunities: Utilize security certification processes (ISMS-P, ISO27001), external security incidents and their countermeasures, and government-led training/inspections as opportunities to raise awareness and strengthen the security system.
- Share, Share, Share:
  - Business Sharing (Out-bound): Proactively disseminate new security policies, enforcement measures, and incident information to all members through various channels. Prioritize sharing high-resistance controls first to manage pushback.
  - Personal Sharing (In-bound): When individuals or teams inquire about security issues, help them find "safe ways to solve it" without violating policy, fostering cooperation.
- Establish Objective Indicators and Utilization:
  - Quantification: "If you can manage it, you can improve it". Quantify security awareness and compliance through realistic, collected indicators (e.g., security training completion, security reports, policy compliance/violations). A 100-point system with deductions and additions can be applied to individuals and departments.
  - Periodic Management & Disclosure: Share the status of security indicators (e.g., quarterly) with department heads. Report annual security indicators and rankings to the CEO.
  - Compensation and Complementary Measures: Apply rewards for high rankings (e.g., KPI additional points) and remedial measures for low rankings (e.g., exclusion from promotion) to incentivize security culture.
  - Annual Review: Review the rationality of security indicator standards annually to adapt to organizational changes and minimize resistance.

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VI. Addressing Limitations of Awareness and Future Measures

While crucial, information security awareness has inherent limitations: it varies by individual, environment, and time; it cannot be automated; it is vulnerable to convenience; and susceptible to "user traction".

CISOs must implement complementary measures to manage these limitations:

Continuous Monitoring and Behavior Analysis: Utilize existing security systems (NAC, DLP, Firewall) to collect indirect indicators of behavior (e.g., access logs, PC power-off times, malware infections) to monitor awareness and identify internal threats.
Periodic Security Awareness Assessment: Regularly evaluate members' perception of information protection through a combination of security indicator evaluations, indirect indicator analysis, security checks, and complaint collection.
Establish a Security Philosophy in Decision-Making: Systematize decision-making processes, especially for department heads and above, to mandate review of "information security issues" at various approval stages.
Use of Security Statement: Frame and prominently display a CEO-signed "security declaration" in offices and conference rooms to reinforce the company's information security philosophy. This becomes a clear reference point in disputes regarding the information security system.

By strategically implementing these comprehensive approaches to governance, awareness, and culture, CISOs can build a resilient and security-conscious organization capable of navigating the complex and ever-evolving threat landscape.