The successful acceptance of new business investments—no matter whether it’s for sales, marketing, technology, or another area—is dependent on the return on investment (ROI). 

ROI is a key performance indicator that helps decision-makers determine whether their investments are sound or not.

For CISOs presenting new solutions to decision-makers, it’s next to impossible to talk about cybersecurity ROI without hard numbers to back it up. 

This is exactly why technology, and especially cybersecurity investments, are an issue. They do not generate revenue themselves but eliminate risk and potential costs. All businesses are aware they must invest in cybersecurity, yet many are reluctant to do so as it’s seen as ‘too expensive’ because until now cyber threats have been nearly impossible to quantify in real numbers. 

When the company cannot see the financial damage that can happen under certain threats and what systems would be affected, they often won’t want to spend for solutions. 

Such a stance leads to pushback on possible solutions and tools because they cost money but offer no way to measure ROI. 

There are some posts that give pointers on maximizing cybersecurity ROI, but not one of them has a way to actually measure it and present numbers. 

• How can a vendor selling cybersecurity solutions show their tool is worth investing in if there is no way to track performance? 

• How can a CISO show the board why investing in solutions is the smart choice without speaking in a language they understand? 

Boardish quantifies cybersecurity threats. It helps show that solution costs are but a fraction of the actual threat risk by showing risk in a language decision-makers understand – financial impact. 

Cybersecurity ROI – An Example

For example, the proposed solution costs $100k (with implementation). To showcase it’s worth it, any vendor or CISO would need to present how much the threat would cost, such as ransomware infecting the systems. 

Boardish can do that—it will present the cumulative cost of the threat—in this case, $1M—and how much the cost would be per specific segments, such as market loss, sales loss, regulation loss or salary loss.

Since a $100k cost for your security tool covers a threat that would cost $1M there is a clear ROI to present to decision-makers. 

But the best part is that vendors can present how successful the tool would be in mitigating the threat, and even how much exposure is left AFTER implementing your solution too! 

Quantify Threats & Measure Cybersecurity ROI (with actual figures) With Boardish! 

The Boardish Threat Protection Factor (TPF) methodology enables vendors and security specialists to present actual numbers and helps them measure and quantify ROI. Decision-makers will finally be able to decide on cybersecurity and tech business ventures the same way as with all others.  

5 Ways A CISO Can Improve Cybersecurity ROI

#1 Identify threats 

You need to know what threats present the largest risks to the company. It’s not feasible to spend money on the wrong tools because you don’t know the biggest threats. 

#2 Determine your risk appetite

See what risks you are willing to accept and tolerate, versus which ones the company would better mitigate with the most efficient tool.

#3 Ditch legacy solutions 

Perimeter controls and focus on external threats aren’t enough in times when new regulations dictate you pay millions in the event of a data leak or breach. Find solutions that will cover the most expensive threats that present a real risk and be PROACTIVE in your search for solutions.

#4 Implement solutions with best ROI 

The most expensive solutions are not necessarily the best ones—often companies will automatically look at tools that cost most and hope it means it will offer the best protection. Or they choose the cheapest option that provides virtually no protection at all. 

Yet the effectiveness of a solution depends on many factors: the environment (on-premise or in the cloud?), company position, current solutions, so focus on solutions that address specific needs. Make sure you’re calculating ROI effectively with Boardish. 

#5 Be agile

The currently implemented solutions need to be continuously measured for efficiency, and the cybersecurity landscape followed to see new threat trends. This is the only way to ensure the implemented tools are the best possible choice in terms of security and ROI. 

Ultimately, measuring and improving your company’s cybersecurity ROI is reliant on understanding the figures. Quantify the risk, quantify the solution, and just like any other function, let the numbers do the talking!