Atul Vashistha 

While COVID-19 paused many activities in 2020, cybercriminals continued to keep busy evolving their arsenal of weapons for more lucrative cyberattacks. While companies adopted remote work models and third parties experienced heightened disruption, cyber risk skyrocketed with increased ransomware, credential stuffing, malware, and Virtual Private Network (VPN) exploitation. As a result, the number of data breaches in the U.S. reached 1001 cases last year, with over 155.8 million individuals affected. Now following the SolarWinds hack, President Biden is set to sign off on an executive action to address gaps in national cybersecurity. The move is causing many CSOs to look for ways to evolve beyond the reactive model to an “always-on” approach -- one that proactively mitigates potential threats and risks before they disrupt business. 

In recent years, Enterprise Risk Management has become increasingly focused on cybersecurity risks. While this focus on cyber is understandable, the current COVID crisis has demonstrated that the unpredictable nature of cascading risks requires viewing risk through a much wider risk aperture. One way forward to successfully navigate this new risk frontier is the establishment of a Risk Operations Center (ROC). The ROC enables enterprise and technology leaders to have the continuous monitoring they require to proactively mitigate all cyber issues. Additionally, it fully supports the CISO/cybersecurity leader's principal responsibilities identified by the HBR survey.