12 Questions Every CEO Should Ask Their CISO Now

Warning signs

›Vague answers with no data. If the CISO answers in generalities ('we are well protected', 'we use the best tools') without presenting metrics, KPIs or evidence of testing, the security program probably lacks real instrumentation and governance. Good security management is always driven by measurable data.
›Absence of regular reports to the board. Security reported only in moments of crisis is reactive security. Mature organizations establish a cadence of reports to the board — typically quarterly — with risk indicators, relevant incidents, compliance status and progress on initiatives. The absence of this cadence indicates that security is still treated as an isolated technical area, not as a governance function.
›Absence of tested crisis exercises. If the last incident simulation was more than 12 months ago — or never occurred — the organization does not know its response gaps. Discovering flaws in the plan during a real incident costs exponentially more than discovering them in a controlled exercise. This is an objective indicator of operational immaturity.
›Third parties with no formal assessment process. A company can have the best internal security and still be compromised by a supplier without adequate controls. If there is no formal third-party risk assessment process (TPRM), with an inventory, questionnaires and periodic audits, the organization's risk perimeter is unknown and, therefore, unmanageable.
›Security as an IT item, not a business one. When the CISO reports only to the CTO or IT director — without direct access to the CEO or the board — security lacks strategic visibility and a budget proportional to the real risk. Mature companies position the CISO with an independent reporting line or guaranteed access to the board on matters of material risk.
›Incomplete or outdated asset inventory. You cannot protect what you do not know. If the CISO cannot quickly list which critical systems exist, which personal data is processed and where it is stored, the foundation of the security program is compromised. The NIST CSF 2.0 positions the 'Identify' function — including asset inventory — as a prerequisite for all effective protection.

Step by step

1
What is our biggest cyber risk today — and what are we doing to reduce it?
This is the root question of all security governance. The CISO's answer should name specific assets, concrete threats and initiatives in progress. If the answer is vague or generic, it is an immediate sign that the security program lacks prioritization based on real risk. According to the NIST CSF 2.0, the 'Govern' function requires that the organizational context, risk strategy and oversight roles be clearly defined — which begins precisely with this question.
2
Are we in full compliance with the LGPD — and how do we know?
The General Data Protection Law (Law 13,709/2018) imposes fines of up to 2% of revenue and severe reputational damage. The CEO needs to know whether there is an up-to-date mapping of personal data, whether the data protection officer (DPO) is designated, whether contracts with processors are adequate and whether data subjects can exercise their rights. Compliance is not a statement — it is evidence. Ask for reports and audit results, not just assertions.
3
How long does it take us to detect and contain an attack (MTTD and MTTR)?
MTTD (Mean Time to Detect) and MTTR (Mean Time to Respond/Recover) are the most relevant operational indicators for the board. The global average time to detect a breach exceeds 190 days (IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report). If the CISO cannot answer with concrete numbers — or if those numbers are too high for the company's sector — the monitoring and response program needs an urgent review. This metric translates operational maturity into the language of business risk.
4
Do we have a documented and tested incident response plan?
An untested plan is just a document. The CEO should ask when the last simulation exercise (tabletop exercise) was held and who participated — including legal, communications and executive leadership. The NIST CSF 2.0 and the CERT.br framework recommend at least annual simulations for high-probability scenarios (ransomware, data breach, credential compromise). The absence of recent exercises is a concrete indicator of exposure.
5
If we fall victim to ransomware tomorrow, what happens in the next 24 hours?
This revealing hypothetical question tests the organization's real readiness. An adequate answer includes: who is contacted first, which systems are isolated, who decides on payment or not, how communication with customers and regulators occurs, and what the continuity plan is while systems are down. If the CISO hesitates or the plan reveals gaps in communication, decision-making or containment, the operational risk is significant. About 66% of organizations that suffer ransomware without a tested plan pay the ransom — with no guarantee of recovery.
6
Are our backups immutable, isolated and tested periodically?
Backups are the last line of defense in ransomware attacks and operational errors. The CEO should ask whether the backups follow the 3-2-1-1 rule (three copies, two different media, one offsite, one immutable), whether they are segregated from the main network (air-gap), and whether they have been restored successfully recently. Backups on the same network as production systems are routinely encrypted along with the primary assets in sophisticated attacks. This question directly protects the business's RTO and RPO.
7
How does our security maturity compare to our sector — and what does benchmarking indicate?
Maturity relative to the sector is fundamental for security investment decisions. A prepared CISO should present the results of assessments based on recognized frameworks — such as the NIST CSF, ISO 27001, CIS Controls or CMMI-CYBER — and position the company on the maturity spectrum relative to peers. Falling below the sector average is not just a technical risk: it is a factor in insurance pricing, a due diligence point in M&A and, in regulated sectors (financial, healthcare), it may represent non-compliance with requirements of the Central Bank, ANPD or ANS.
8
Do our suppliers and third parties represent a risk we understand and manage?
The digital supply chain is one of the fastest-growing attack vectors. The SolarWinds attack (2020) and the MOVEit incident (2023) demonstrated that software suppliers and service providers with privileged access to the company's network are entry points. The CEO should ask whether there is an inventory of third parties with access to critical data or systems, whether they are assessed periodically (TPRM — Third-Party Risk Management), whether contracts include incident notification clauses, and whether access is governed by the principle of least privilege.

What NOT to do

✕Do not treat security as a purely technical matter. When the CEO fully delegates the cybersecurity discussion to IT, they lose the ability to make informed decisions about risks that can paralyze the company, destroy its reputation or create regulatory liability. The CEO does not need to understand technology — they need to understand risk and its implications for the business.
✕Do not accept compliance as equivalent to security. Being compliant with the LGPD, ISO 27001 or PCI-DSS does not mean being secure — it means meeting minimum requirements established by standards. Certified companies are compromised regularly. The correct question is not 'are we certified?' but 'what is our residual risk even with the controls we have?'
✕Do not approve a security budget without understanding what you are buying. Approving funds without clarity about the risks being mitigated, the gaps being closed and the expected success metrics is a waste of resources. The CEO should require that every relevant security investment be associated with a measurable reduction in risk and a clear business objective.
✕Do not withhold material security risks from the board or shareholders. Cyber risks that could materially and financially impact the organization must be communicated to the board of directors. In publicly traded companies, the SEC (in the US) and global regulatory trends require disclosure of material cyber risks. Concealing or downplaying these risks can create personal liability for executives and directors.
✕Do not wait for an incident to establish the conversation with the CISO. Most organizations that have suffered major cyber incidents admit, in hindsight, that the warning signs existed and were not escalated adequately to the executive level. Preventive reporting cadences, risk review rituals and guaranteed CISO access to leadership are structural protections — not bureaucracy.

Why the CEO needs to lead the conversation on cybersecurity

Cybersecurity stopped being an IT problem more than a decade ago. Today it is a corporate governance function with direct impact on operational continuity, reputation, valuation and regulatory liability. The CEO is the primary owner of the organization's risk appetite — and cannot exercise that role effectively without understanding, in business language, what the company's cyber exposure is.

The World Economic Forum has ranked cybersecurity failures among the top five global risks for five consecutive years. In Brazil, the average cost of a data breach exceeded R$ 6.7 million in 2024, according to estimates based on the IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report adapted to the local market. For regulated sectors — finance, healthcare, critical infrastructure — the regulatory impact can double or triple that figure.

The governance model recommended by the NIST CSF 2.0 (the most recent version of the most widely adopted cybersecurity framework globally) introduces the 'Govern' function as a layer cutting across all others, explicitly recognizing that effective security requires leadership decisions on strategy, roles, policies and risk oversight. This positions the CEO and the board as central — not peripheral — actors in the security program.

How to translate technical risk into business risk

The biggest challenge in the CEO-CISO relationship is the difference in language. CISOs trained in technology tend to report in terms of vulnerabilities, attack vectors and tools. CEOs need financial impact, probability, recovery time and regulatory implications. The translation between these two worlds is a shared responsibility — but the CEO should actively demand it.

A practical translation structure follows three axes: probability (what is the real chance of occurrence, based on sector threat intelligence?), impact (what would be the financial, reputational and regulatory cost of each scenario?) and response capability (how long does it take us to detect, contain and recover, and how much would that cost?). When the CISO presents risks in this format, the CEO can make informed decisions about where to invest, what to accept as residual risk and what to transfer via insurance.

Tools like FAIR analysis (Factor Analysis of Information Risk) allow cyber risks to be quantified in financial terms, turning discussions about 'threat level' into estimates of annualized expected loss (ALE — Annualized Loss Expectancy). Even without formally implementing FAIR, the CEO should require that each relevant risk be described with an estimate of financial impact and probability, even if in ranges.

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Metrics and KPIs the board should track

Effective security governance requires a dashboard of indicators that the board can track consistently over time. The most relevant KPIs for executive leadership include: MTTD (mean time to detect an incident), MTTR (mean time to respond and recover), the number and severity of incidents in the period, the percentage of employee security training coverage, compliance status with applicable regulations, backup coverage and restore test results, and third-party risk posture.

Beyond operational indicators, the board should track strategic indicators: progress on the maturity roadmap (measured by periodic assessments against frameworks like the NIST CSF or CIS Controls), cyber insurance coverage and its alignment with real risk, and the evolution of residual risk over time. Comparing across cycles allows the CEO to assess whether security investments are generating a real reduction in exposure.

Reports to the board should be concise, visual and decision-oriented. The recommended model includes: risk status (green/yellow/red by domain), the top 3 risks of the period with mitigation status, relevant incidents and lessons learned, and decisions that require a board position (investments, changes in risk appetite, regulatory matters). Avoid dense technical reports that dilute the signal into noise.

The role and correct positioning of the CISO in the governance structure

The CISO's hierarchical positioning is, in itself, an indicator of governance maturity. In organizations that treat security as a strategic priority, the CISO reports directly to the CEO or the board — or has guaranteed access to those levels in situations of material risk. When the CISO reports only to the CTO or the IT director, there is a structural risk of conflict of interest (IT speed versus security rigor) and of executive invisibility.

The CISO should be involved in business decisions that have security implications: mergers and acquisitions (security due diligence), the launch of new digital products and services, expansion into new regulated markets, hiring suppliers with access to sensitive data, and significant changes to the technology infrastructure. The absence of the CISO from these decisions frequently creates security debt that manifests as vulnerabilities or non-compliance months or years later.

Mid-sized companies that cannot maintain a full-time CISO have access to proven alternative models. The vCISO (virtual or fractional CISO) is an experienced professional who works part-time, delivering governance, strategy and security oversight without the cost of a full-time executive position. This model is especially suited to growing companies that already have enough complexity to demand governance, but do not yet have the scale for a dedicated position.

Cyber insurance, third parties and the invisible frontier of risk

Cyber insurance is one component of a risk transfer strategy — not a substitute for security controls. The CEO should understand what the policy covers (incident response, data subject notification, legal fees, business interruption, civil liability) and, crucially, what it excludes. Many policies have exclusion clauses for failures of basic security controls — if the company suffers an attack and does not have multi-factor authentication (MFA) or adequate backups, the insurer may deny the claim.

The digital supply chain has dramatically expanded organizations' risk perimeter. Software suppliers (SaaS, ERP, CRM), service providers with remote network access, partners with API integration and third parties that process personal data on the company's behalf are all potential attack vectors. The CEO should ask the CISO whether there is a formal third-party risk management program (TPRM) with an inventory, criticality classification, periodic assessments and incident response processes involving suppliers.

The LGPD establishes joint and several liability between the controller and the processor in cases of breaches arising from the failure to meet contractual obligations. This means the company can be fined by the ANPD and held liable in court for incidents that originated with a supplier — if the contracts and oversight controls are not adequate. This legal dimension reinforces the business case for a robust TPRM program.

Governance cadence: how to structure the CEO-CISO relationship throughout the year

An effective governance relationship between the CEO and the CISO does not happen only in moments of crisis — it is built through regular rituals that create shared context and enable informed decisions. The recommended cadence includes: monthly meetings to review operational indicators and relevant incidents; quarterly reports to the board with risk posture, progress on initiatives and required decisions; annual maturity assessments with a sector comparison; and crisis simulation exercises (tabletop exercises) at least once a year, ideally every six months.

Beyond the regular cadence, it is essential to define clear criteria for immediate escalation to the CEO: incidents with potential for material impact, personal data breaches requiring notification to the ANPD within 72 hours, compromise of critical systems, and any situation involving a decision about ransom payment. The absence of clear escalation criteria generates delays that amplify damage in real incidents.

Decripte offers complete support for this governance structure through its vCISO service, which includes participation in executive meetings, preparation of board reports, facilitation of crisis exercises and maturity assessments based on the NIST CSF 2.0. Companies of all sizes — from the sole proprietor to the Enterprise with more than 100,000 employees — can access senior-level security governance without the investment of a dedicated executive position.

Key terms

Residual Risk: The risk that remains after security controls are applied. No organization eliminates cyber risk completely; the goal of security management is to reduce risk to a level acceptable to the business (risk appetite). The CEO and the board must deliberately accept, transfer or mitigate the identified residual risk — and that decision should be documented. The absence of explicit deliberation on residual risk is a governance failure.
RTO and RPO: RTO (Recovery Time Objective) is the maximum acceptable time to restore a system or process after a disruption — how much downtime the company can tolerate. RPO (Recovery Point Objective) is the maximum amount of data the company accepts losing, expressed in time — for example, 'we can lose up to 4 hours of transactions'. These two parameters should be defined by the business (not by IT) for each critical system, and backup and recovery controls should be sized to meet them.
MTTD and MTTR: MTTD (Mean Time to Detect) is the average time the organization takes to identify that an attack or incident is underway. MTTR (Mean Time to Respond or Mean Time to Recover) is the average time to contain the incident and restore normal operations. They are the main indicators of the operational effectiveness of the security program. The global average MTTD exceeds 190 days; organizations with mature monitoring and detection programs can reduce that number to hours or days, dramatically reducing the financial impact of incidents.
Risk Appetite: The level of risk the organization deliberately accepts taking on in pursuit of its business objectives. It is not a technical statement — it is a strategic decision of the CEO and the board. For example: the company accepts a residual risk of leaking low-sensitivity customer data, but does not accept any risk of the payment system being unavailable for more than 2 hours. Defining and documenting the risk appetite is the first step to aligning security investments with the real priorities of the business, as advocated by the 'Govern' function of the NIST CSF 2.0.

Frequently asked questions

How often should the CEO meet with the CISO to discuss security?

The recommendation is at least one monthly meeting to review operational indicators, with a formal presentation to the board every quarter. In periods of higher threat activity in the sector or during the implementation of critical initiatives, the frequency can be greater. What matters is that the cadence be regular and pre-established — not reactive to crises.

Does the CEO need to understand security technology to exercise their governance role?

No. The CEO needs to understand business risk — probability of occurrence, financial and operational impact, recovery time, regulatory and reputational implications. It is the CISO's role to translate technical concepts into business language. If the CISO cannot make that translation, it is a sign that the security program lacks maturity in the governance dimension.

What is a vCISO and when does it make sense for a Brazilian company?

A vCISO (virtual or fractional CISO) is a senior security professional who works part-time for the company, delivering strategy, governance and oversight without the cost of a full-time executive position. It makes sense for companies that already have enough complexity to demand security governance — digital presence, customer personal data, applicable regulations — but do not yet have the scale for a dedicated position. In Brazil, it is an especially relevant solution for growing SMBs and mid-sized companies in regulated sectors.

How do I know whether the security investment is being well applied?

The CEO should require that every relevant investment be associated with a measurable reduction in risk: which specific threats are mitigated, by how much they reduce the probability or impact of an incident, and which metrics will be tracked to validate the result. Periodic maturity assessments (annual or semiannual) make it possible to compare the evolution of the security posture over time and validate whether the investments are generating the expected return in terms of reduced exposure.

What is the difference between being compliant with the LGPD and being secure?

Compliance means meeting the minimum legal requirements established by the General Data Protection Law — data mapping, a legal basis for processing, designation of a data protection officer (DPO), processes for responding to data subjects. Security is the technical and operational ability to protect that data against unauthorized access, leakage or destruction. A company can be compliant and still have significant technical vulnerabilities. Compliance is necessary but not sufficient for real protection.

How should the CEO react if the CISO reports that a security incident has occurred?

The first step is to activate the incident response plan — which should be previously established and tested. The CEO needs to know who is responsible for each stage (technical containment, legal communication, external communication), what the regulatory deadlines are (the LGPD requires notification to the ANPD within a reasonable period — in practice, 72 hours for high-risk incidents), and how critical decisions will be made. In parallel, engage the cyber insurance and specialized lawyers. Never act without coordination or communicate publicly without legal guidance.

Where to start if the company has never had a formal security governance structure?

The starting point is a maturity assessment based on a recognized framework (NIST CSF 2.0, CIS Controls or ISO 27001), which will map the current posture, identify the most critical gaps and allow initiatives to be prioritized based on real risk. The assessment should include interviews with technical leadership, a review of existing policies and controls, and an analysis of the technical environment. Decripte offers this maturity diagnostic for companies of all sizes, with results in an executive format and a remediation roadmap prioritized by risk. Go to /planos or request a free assessment at decripte.io.

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The Questions Every CEO Should Ask the CISO — and Why They Protect the Business