Why the COO should care about cybersecurity
The COO is accountable for a company’s continuous operations in the face of various challenges, including economic downturns, process and technological changes, and natural catastrophes, among others. When it comes to corporate risk concerns, seasoned COOs are masters at dealing with both planned and unplanned risks. This must include cyber risk as a business risk.
Given the COO’s responsibilities—vendor management, human resources, operations development, design, and production, among other things—cybersecurity literacy, particularly as it concerns business continuity, disaster recovery, and incident response planning and execution, is critical. Engaging with the CISO to better understand and define the cyber scenarios that might interrupt business operations is necessary so the COO is prepared to face them head-on in the event an incident occurs.
To accomplish this, the COO must collaborate and communicate...