Cyber Risk: Beyond IT’s Responsibility

It’s long been established that cyber risk isn’t an IT problem. It’s a business risk.

This isn’t new. Regulators, auditors, and professional bodies have been saying it for years. The Australian Institute of Company Directors says it. ASIC says it. Every major cybersecurity framework says it. And yet, somehow, the message still hasn’t quite landed with some boards.

Breaches don’t just take down systems. They disrupt operations. They slow revenue. They create uncertainty. They erode staff confidence, customer confidence, and market confidence in your product or service. They damage your brand, your reputation, and your balance sheet.

If that doesn’t sound like a business problem, I don’t know what does.

The idea that cyber risk sits in the IT department’s inbox is one of the more persistent and dangerous myths in corporate Australia. Your IT team exists to keep systems operational and functioning to support business outcomes. Cybersecurity exists to protect those outcomes from compromise – whether that compromise is external, internal, accidental, or malicious.

Treating cyber as “just an IT issue” is like assuming your tax accountant handles your legal matters because both involve paperwork. They’re related disciplines, but they have completely different functions and accountabilities.

 

Leadership owns the risk

The accountability for cyber risk sits squarely with leadership. When a breach occurs, it isn’t the IT manager facing the regulator, the insurer, or the class action lawyers. It’s the directors, the executives, and the decision-makers who carry that weight.

Frameworks like ISO 27001, SOC 2, CPS 234, and SMB1001 are explicit about this. They require management buy-in and leadership oversight. Without it, no cybersecurity framework, policy, or program can succeed.

And yet, time and again, the same phrase emerges in boardrooms: “We’ve got an IT manager who handles that.”

That’s great. Your IT manager’s role is to keep your business systems alive and operational. But the role of cybersecurity is to protect the business itself – your data, your reputation, your clients, your people, and your ability to trade.

If executives fail to engage with cyber risk at the strategic level, they’re effectively running blindfolded through a minefield while asking the IT team to walk ten steps ahead and “let us know if something goes bang.”

 

Cyber risk cuts through every business function

Every business function carries cyber exposure. Pretending it doesn’t is a luxury few organisations can afford.

Take sales. That team holds customer data – personally identifiable information, pricing models, discounts, deal structures, and pipeline projections. That information is commercial gold to your competitors. If you think it isn’t valuable, you’re either in a monopoly or a fantasy.

HR? That’s a treasure chest for threat actors. Payroll data, tax file numbers, addresses, contact details, marital status, bank accounts. When that gets compromised, the breach doesn’t stop at data. It impacts staff trust and morale. Employees start asking whether leadership really cares about their safety or privacy. Spoiler alert: if they don’t feel safe, they’ll leave.

Marketing and product development? Leaking an unreleased campaign or product roadmap can hand your competitors a six-month head start and blow your launch strategy to pieces. A premature leak means your timeline, your messaging, and your control of the narrative all vanish overnight.

Even finance isn’t immune. Ransomware, invoice fraud, and compromised supplier accounts can derail operations in a matter of hours.

Cyber risk doesn’t live in one department. It runs through the veins of the business. Treating it as a technical silo blinds you to how interdependent every function really is.

 

Governance, not gadgets

Too many organisations try to buy their way out of insecurity. The thinking goes, “If we buy the new tool, we’ll be safe.” Unfortunately, tools without governance are just expensive false comfort.

A firewall won’t fix a poor process. An endpoint agent won’t compensate for missing leadership accountability. Governance, not gadgets, is what makes cybersecurity effective.

Security must align with corporate strategy and risk appetite. A reactive, IT-centric approach costs more over time than a proactive, governance-driven model that’s built into executive decision-making.

Cyber isn’t the department of “no.” It’s the department of “how about we do it this way instead.” Its role is to enable the business to move faster and smarter, but safely.

That might look like this:

• Someone wants to use AI tools to improve productivity.
• Instead of saying no, the cybersecurity team asks: what’s the business outcome you need, and how can we achieve it securely?
• The end result is the same productivity uplift, but with the data, systems, and clients protected.

That’s what effective cyber leadership looks like – collaborative, business-aligned, and risk-aware.

Cybersecurity isn’t a one-and-done task either. It’s continual improvement. Threats evolve, technology changes, and your business changes with it. A static security posture is a vulnerable one.

 

Culture starts at the top

The latest Australian Cyber Security Centre report makes it clear: the cost of incidents keeps rising. Ransom payments, downtime, regulatory fines, legal fees, and insurance premiums are all trending upward.

If you delegate cybersecurity to IT and tick the box, you’re not managing risk – you’re setting yourself up to fail.

Culture is everything. A cybersecurity culture starts at the top. If executives don’t take it seriously, nobody else will. Staff don’t follow policies; they follow examples.

They say one bad apple spoils the barrel. I prefer the version that says a fish rots from the head.

If the leadership team refuses to engage with cybersecurity, the rest of the organisation won’t either. And when that culture breaks down, it doesn’t matter how sophisticated your technology stack is. You’ve already lost the war.

 

Cyber maturity is strategic

Cybersecurity maturity isn’t about buying the shiniest new software. It’s about understanding how all the moving parts of your security program connect and how they’re governed.

Unless your technology investment is part of a cohesive, integrated, and measurable framework, you’re wasting strategic capital. Governance, measurement, and accountability turn cybersecurity from a cost centre into a force multiplier – something that drives business advantage rather than drains it.

A mature cybersecurity posture enables:

• Stronger client and investor trust
• Smoother audit and compliance outcomes
• Better incident response capability
• Improved valuation during due diligence or acquisition

Cybersecurity isn’t just about stopping bad things from happening. It’s about making sure your business can keep doing the good things, even when bad things try to happen.

 

Final thought

Cybersecurity isn’t a technical nuisance, a compliance checkbox, or an optional extra. It’s an executive responsibility that underpins the sustainability and resilience of the entire business.

The sooner leadership embraces that reality, the safer, more resilient, and more competitive their organisation will be.

If any of this sounds uncomfortably familiar, reach out. I’m happy to set aside 30 minutes for a no-obligation conversation to discuss where your organisation currently sits and highlight the steps that will make the biggest impact.