Tag: CISO

My ‘Too Long; Did Read’ review of the ‘CISO Engagement and Decision Drivers Study‘ from CyberTheory is, by necessity, much more negative than I’m generally comfortable writing, but it truly deserves the treatment. Despite the title of the study, it barely talks about engagement with CISOs in any meaningful way. It might be useful to a Marketing team, but is almost impossible to decipher and misses its target. Due to the colors chosen for the plots and graphs of the report, any hope of the reader drawing intelligence from the study is quickly drowned in in a sea of blue ink.

To be clear, I’ve worked with and known much of the team at the Cyentia Institute and respect them greatly. I’ve followed their work for years and know what they’re capable of. I wouldn’t spend the time needed to read the report from front to back and comment on it if I didn’t know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, they are capable of something much better than what’s shown in this report. Please look away, Wade and team!

Overall Impression – When I review a report, I’m examining three aspects: A) What data is the report drawing on, B) How was the data analyzed, and C) How was the data visualized. I’m also looking at how it was laid out and edited, but that’s generally a minor part of my analysis. The CISO Engagement report fails, or nearly fails, on every one of these measurements. The data and the visualizations are rendered useless by the color choice, and the analysis is window dressing with key words thrown into the mix. I’m looking for guidance on how to use the data, rather than generic SEO feedback.

Who should read this? Marketing and content creation teams might gain some insight from this report. It is primarily aimed at people trying to connect to CISOs after all. I would suggest that marketing teams skip straight to page 22 (or is it 39?) and the section titled ‘Reaching Your Audience’. There are a significant number of ‘Marketing Takeaways’ that may contain nuggets of wisdom for their consumption.

Security professionals should avoid reading this report. We’re not the target. If you’re interested to see what an SEO driven content team thinks will grab your attention, dive in. But you’d better like blue and cyan, because there are no other colors to choose from in the CISO Engagement study.