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CISOs map out their cybersecurity plan for 2018

When Omar F. Khawaja compiled his priority list for 2018, he didn’t include which security technologies he wanted or how many IT staff he hoped to hire.

Instead, the CISO at Highmark Health — a healthcare management and insurance provider whose portfolio includes Allegheny Health Network, United Concordia Dental and Visionworks, among others — articulated an overarching strategy on how the cybersecurity plan should fit within the national organization’s business strategy.

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“While I do realize that I will need technology to enable many of the things I’m trying to do [this] year and going into 2019, my goal isn’t to deploy technology, but to realize certain outcomes,” said Khawaja, who works out of Highmark’s Pittsburgh headquarters.

Khawaja broke his cybersecurity plan down into five key areas of focus.

First, he wants to look at how his team makes decisions. “There are always more opportunities to make more impact and add more controls than there are the resources and time to do so,” he said. “So how do we create a decision-making framework so we get [our priorities in order]? And we’re not doing things because it’s a shiny object, but instead because it [has] real business impact?”

Second is organizational change management. The corporate security team needs to be confident that staff throughout Highmark Health, and its subsidiaries, adapt practices and processes to maximize the value of the implemented security protocols and technologies.

Next, Khawaja wants to ensure his team’s cybersecurity plan is aligned with the top business risks, so that the cybersecurity program “isn’t a security program but a risk-management program.”

The healthcare organization also wants to focus on operational excellence and customer satisfaction. “We absolutely have to understand what objectives we’re trying to achieve and who our key stakeholders are,” Khawaja said. “It’s not that we just simply secure the place, but we do it in a way that’s excellent. We have to do it at 100%, and we’ve got to be at 100% every single time.”

While Khawaja’s plans may sound ambitious, he is not alone. Studies show that executives increasingly recognize that a cyberattack could cripple their operations and mean millions in lost business and reputational damage as well as in cleanup costs. The National Association of Corporate Directors’ 2017-2018 Public Company Governance Survey found that cybersecurity threats ranked among the top five trends expected to have the greatest effect on business in the upcoming year.

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