As we wrap up Cybersecurity Awareness Month, ISMA collaborated with ISMA member Danny McPherson, Executive Vice President and Chief Security Officer of Verisign, and Hema Lakshminarayanan, Senior Director of Verisign, to discuss the evolving world of cybersecurity and why it should not be an afterthought. Danny and Hema have kindly taken the time to give their responses to the burning questions being asked in the cyber industry today.

For many years, Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) were measured against an impossible objective: 100% breach prevention. Thankfully, many today understand there is no such thing as 100% protection against breaches. This has changed how CISO effectiveness is gauged: from breach prevention to incident response and resilience.

The number of worldwide cyberattacks is on the rise, and organizations with a global footprint face a relentless wave of attacks by motivated “threat actors.” These actors can be organized multinational criminals, nation states, cyber-activists (known as “hacktivists”) or company insiders. And, their activities can damage a company’s reputation, disrupt its business, and impose financial penalties through regulatory violations and remediation costs.