Cybersecurity moves beyond IT: Protecting your bottom line
By Jeff Olejnik
For years, cybersecurity was considered a technical matter managed by IT. Today, that perspective is outdated and risky. Cyberthreats now directly affect your company’s financial health, valuation, operations and reputation. From cash flow and insurance costs to client trust and regulatory compliance, the consequences reach far beyond technology.
The evolving threat landscape
Cyber incidents are increasingly targeting mid-market organizations, drawn by valuable data and assets but limited security resources. What was once a minor inconvenience can now result in:
- Ransomware: Disrupting access and demanding large payments.
- Business email compromise: Leading to fraudulent transactions or impersonation.
- Data breaches: Exposing sensitive information, triggering lawsuits or fines.
- Operational downtime: Interrupting production and services for extended periods.
These are not hypothetical risks; they are real financial events, especially in today’s uncertain economy.
Cybersecurity: A strategic risk management tool
Investments in insurance, legal reviews and audits are standard for managing enterprise risk. Cybersecurity should be viewed similarly—as a core strategy for mitigating financial exposure. Major impacts from cyber events often arise outside IT, including:
- Legal and regulatory penalties.
- Lost revenue from outages or reputation damage.
- Executive time spent on crisis response.
- Customer attrition and contract losses.
- Breaches of loan agreements due to reporting delays.
- M&A valuation impacts.
Excluding cyber from risk and continuity planning leaves organizations exposed to significant costs.
Finance leaders: Essential partners in cyber strategy
Despite the financial implications, many CFOs and finance teams are only involved after a cyber incident occurs. This needs to change. Finance should participate in:
- Budgeting: Funding not just tools, but training, backup and recovery.
- Modeling impact: Assessing breach scenarios and insurance gaps.
- Risk evaluation: Setting risk appetite and tolerance.
- Metrics and reporting: Linking cyber posture to business outcomes.
- Build versus outsource decisions: Ensuring strategy aligns with cost and risk.
Cybersecurity is now integral to financial stewardship — decisions and data must be connected.
Bridging the CFO-CIO divide
Cybersecurity discussions often falter between technical and executive teams. IT leaders may advocate for upgrades, but without the context of business outcomes, their proposals can struggle to gain traction. Finance and operations leaders, focused on costs and margins, may see cybersecurity as just another expense.
CFOs don’t need deep technical expertise, but they should understand:
- Which systems and data are vital to operations.
- Where vulnerabilities exist (remote access, vendor portals, financial processes).
- What risk scenarios and response plans are in place.
- Recovery timelines and costs.
- Relevant compliance requirements.
Aligning cybersecurity with financial and operational planning allows businesses to shift from being reactive to building resilience.
Cyber risk in boardrooms and transactions
Cybersecurity posture is now a key part of audits, financing, and M&A due diligence. Buyers and investors expect:
- Documented policies and incident plans.
- Access controls and data protection.
- Employee training on threats.
- Business continuity plans that include cyber scenarios.
- Adequate insurance coverage.
- Regulatory compliance.
Lacking these can slow deals, reduce valuations or end negotiations. In other words, cyber risk isn’t just operational. It’s reputational, financial and strategic. In a deal-driven market, readiness creates leverage.
The changing cyber insurance market
Cyber insurance is no longer a simple safety net. Premiums are rising, applications are more demanding, and coverage may be denied without basic controls. Finance leaders should:
- Know what policies cover —and what they don’t.
- Collaborate with IT to meet security requirements.
- Understand retention and response obligations.
- Review policies as risks evolve.
Insurance is a tool, not a solution — it only works if foundational security is in place.
Proactive steps for business and finance leaders
To strengthen cyber risk management:
- Identify critical assets: Focus protection on systems and data that would cause major financial disruption if compromised. Use penetration testing and simulations to assess exposure. These exercises help assess both the likelihood and the severity of a breach.
- Test incident response: Run tabletop exercises to reveal gaps in communication, coordination and recovery.
- Quantify risk: Work with your IT and insurance partners to estimate the cost of different cyber scenarios — including downtime, recovery and lost business. Then, commit to a continuous improvement cycle by developing actionable mitigation plans that reduce risk to acceptable levels.
- Integrate cyber into enterprise risk: Include cybersecurity in risk dashboards and planning cycles. Confirm that risk tolerances are reviewed by leadership, not just IT.
- Keep cyber hygiene top of mind: Make security a leadership priority, with clear metrics and regular reporting. Lead by example on access controls, phishing response and software compliance. Create dashboards to track and report on the health of your cyber program over time.
Visibility drives control
Without a clear understanding of cybersecurity, organizations remain vulnerable — not just in systems, but in finances and continuity. Resilience comes from knowing your risks, testing your response and investing wisely.
At Wipfli, we help mid-market businesses close the gap between cyber awareness and action, integrating security into strategy, planning and operations. Explore our risk advisory and cybersecurity resources to learn more.
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