Nearly Half of CISOs Report Shutdowns After Cyber Incidents

Cyber resilience is increasingly measured by whether an organization can keep operating during an attack, not only by how quickly it returns online afterward. Research cited by TechRadar found that 47% of chief information security officers (CISOs) who had experienced a cyber incident reported operational shutdowns. Data loss was reported by 41%, and revenue loss by 40%.

The article attributes the findings to research but does not name its publisher. It also quotes Sygnia’s Global Director of Executive and Board Cyber Services, whose name is not given, describing the challenge as keeping critical business functions running. The article says 73% of CISOs are not confident they could effectively manage a major incident if one happened the next day.

Coordination is another reported weakness: 90% of organizations would struggle to coordinate stakeholders during a significant incident, while 75% say uncertainty or delays involving legal and communications teams slow decisions and recovery. The article argues that cyber response requires business, security, IT, legal and communications teams to understand risks together.

It recommends regular tabletop exercises to clarify priorities and responsibilities before a crisis. It also says mature organizations define recovery objectives for critical operations, including a “Minimal Viable Business Objective.” One bank described in the article called its version “MVB” (“minimal viable bank”).

The supplied article text ends mid-sentence after reporting that 78% of security leaders agree environmental blind spots increase the risk of persistent attacker access and repeat incidents. It does not include the rest of the article’s recommendations.