4 Questions C-Suite Executives Should Ask About Cybersecurity

Although cybersecurity teams are responsible for crafting an effective, cost-efficient strategy, executive teams need to understand the high-level elements to ensure a well-rounded cybersecurity framework in organizations. Because it is no longer enough to have the best security software, and threats often arise from elevated privilege accounts that lead to data and financial losses. Here, Chad Carter, VP Sales North America, WALLIX highlights four critical questions that C-suite executives should ask to ensure their organizations don’t fall prey to cyberattacks. 

While the details of an effective and cost-efficient cybersecurity strategy are perhaps best left to experts on in-house IT teams to manage, cybersecurity concerns us all. With these core questions, the C-suite can dive deeper and implicate themselves in their organizations’ cybersecurity strategies for a robust, holistic approach that ensures both compliances with regulations and security of business operations in the face of a dynamic and evolving digital transformation.

Cybersecurity is imperative in today’s modern age of agile business and digital transformation. But with an array of competing cybersecurity solutions on the market and a complex network of tools and platforms integrated into the IT infrastructure, even knowing where to start to assess the state of your cybersecurity can be a struggle.

Statistics show that cyberattacks are only increasing, putting company data at risk. In fact, year-over-year increases in credential leaks – giving outsiders free access to internal systems – is up to 129%. It is no longer an option for the C-Suite to be unaware of the security posture and security risks of their organization.

Learn More: Cybersecurity in 2025: 4 Trends That Will Change the Face of Security

Here are four basic questions C-level executives need to ask in order to master their organization’s cybersecurity:

1) Who Has Access?

Knowing precisely who has logins and credentials to company systems is critical. All too often, user accounts are left untracked, creating a vulnerability of unknown magnitude. As employees and external contractors move through their “lifecycle” – joining the organization, leaving, and moving roles (and therefore changing access needs), they can easily accumulate rights to access any number of systems and applications in what is known as “privilege creep.” What’s worse, with user accounts left untraced, access might be left wide open long after a person has left the organization. And when regulators come knocking and it’s time to prove compliance with security standards, it’s paramount to know precisely who can access financial records, customer data, or other sensitive assets.

2) To What?

Having a directory of users is only the first step. Knowing to which systems and applications a user has access is just as critical, both for compliance and for security. With IT infrastructures becoming more and more complex, organizations often are faced with the challenge of juggling multiple user directories and struggling to control access rights to an evolving number of corporate applications. Centralizing identity management is the only answer, regrouping all sources of identities into one repository through which user access can be provisioned, de-provisioned, and modified easily or even automatically.

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3) Is it Privileged Access?

Not every user in the directory is simply accessing the CRM or other common operational platforms. Some users are super-admins, with elevated access to view and modify servers, maintain critical equipment, or manage IT infrastructure. These users are administrating the systems their colleagues are accessing, but who’s watching the watchers? Tracing, controlling, and monitoring the privileged access to highly sensitive and important systems is critical to a robust cybersecurity posture. Ensuring that elevated privileges are only attributed to a limited set of users and for a limited set of circumstances in what is known as a Least Privilege approach both protects the organization’s most critical resources and responds to key aspects of the world’s most important security regulations.

4) What Are They Doing With It?

Having clear visibility over what users – both privileged and non – helps to save time, money, hassle, and certainly headaches. With the digital transformation comes a whole host of cloud-based platforms and SaaS solutions. Are users connecting to them? Are all purchased licenses being used or can the contract be reduced to save budget? And those privileged sessions – what are external IT service providers really doing during those invoiced hours? Or, what exactly happened that caused systems to shut down? Auditing capabilities are the final piece of the access puzzle, enabling easy oversight of all users, access, and activity for regulatory compliance, budget optimization, and improved security posture.

Bottom Line: Understanding Cyber Risks Leads to Improved Security Posture  

Implementing the right cybersecurity solutions can be an intimidating endeavor. While the details of an effective and cost-efficient cybersecurity strategy are perhaps best left to experts on in-house IT teams to manage, cybersecurity concerns us all. With these core questions, the C-suite can dive deeper and implicate themselves in their organizations’ cybersecurity strategies for a robust, holistic approach that ensures both compliances with regulations and security of business operations in the face of a dynamic and evolving digital transformation.

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