By Parag Khurana, Country Manager – India, Barracuda Networks
Every company is now a digital company, and this has made cybersecurity a business issue. However, cybersecurity teams and business leaders rarely speak the same language. This communication gap creates risk.
When cybersecurity concerns don’t resonate with business leaders, they don’t get the attention, resources or strategic alignment needed to protect the organization. When business leaders don’t understand what cybersecurity teams are trying to accomplish, they may inadvertently undermine protection in pursuit of other business goals.
The cost of miscommunication
This disconnect isn’t hard to imagine. Security teams are likely to turn up to meetings with statistical metrics such as the number of threats blocked, vulnerabilities patched or security events logged. However, business leaders think in terms of business risk – how to protect revenues, maintain business continuity and operations, regulatory compliance and brand reputation.
This misalignment has tangible consequences. Budgets may be cut because leadership doesn’t see the value in a particular security solution. Security policies or programs could be de-prioritized because they increase user friction or seem to slow down operations. Compliance becomes a checkbox exercise rather than meaningful protection. Meanwhile, the threat landscape continues evolving and resource-constrained organizations struggle to keep pace with emerging threats.
Translating technical wins into business impact
Security teams need to frame their work in terms that resonate with business objectives. This means moving beyond technical jargon and numbers and connecting security outcomes to tangible business value and reduced risk.
For example, blocking phishing emails isn’t just about threat prevention but hours of employee productivity saved and potential financial loss avoided. Implementing multi-factor authentication isn’t just about access control but about protecting customer data, maintaining brand trust and avoiding regulatory penalties that could reach millions of dollars.
Resource-constrained organizations particularly need this clarity. These companies don’t have unlimited budgets or large IT teams. Every investment must demonstrate clear value. When business leaders understand that a specific control prevented a breach that would have cost 20 times more to recover from, the conversation changes entirely.
A powerful tool for bridging the communication gap is consistent, business-focused reporting. When security management can point to concrete security wins during quarterly business reviews, it reflects well on them and ensures continued investment in capabilities.
Making cybersecurity everyone’s concern
Effective cybersecurity requires working collaboratively with stakeholders across the organization from the most senior to frontline employees, but this alignment doesn’t happen by accident. It requires deliberate effort from IT teams to communicate in business terms and show value. It also requires business leadership to understand that investing in cybersecurity isn’t an overhead expense but rather essential infrastructure which protects every aspect of the organization.
For security teams this means involving business leaders early, before rolling out controls that might affect operations or workflows. It means understanding objectives and constraints in different functional areas, then designing approaches that protect without creating unnecessary friction. Potential results include development teams pushing faster deployment cycles, sales teams having quick access to customer data, remote workers attaining flexibility. By changing how cybersecurity is perceived, leadership can appreciate that IT teams aren’t creating obstacles to overcome but are rather partners to engage.
Building a consensus around security takes time and effort, but it’s essential for creating a resilient security posture that both protects the organization and supports business growth.
We know that the cyberthreat landscape will continue evolving, that attackers will develop new techniques and vulnerabilities will emerge in systems and processes over time. Organizations that successfully bridge the communication gap between cybersecurity teams and business leadership will be better positioned to adapt, respond and ultimately thrive.