Why INP² Exists: The Cybersecurity Miscommunication Crisis No One's Talking About

"Cybersecurity isn't just a technical failure. It's a communication failure."

That's not a hot take. That's the diagnosis at the heart of a growing crisis affecting leadership teams across industries and the driving reason I founded INP² (Information Needs Processing and Protecting).

The Cost of Miscommunication

Cybersecurity is a leadership issue, but no one's handed executives the manual.

Executives are accountable for security incidents, regulatory compliance, cybersecurity budgets, and board-level risk disclosures. Yet most don't feel confident navigating these conversations and for good reason. They've been left out of them for too long.

The conventional wisdom says CISOs and cybersecurity leaders need to "speak business." They must understand revenue models, operational priorities, and budget constraints. But here's the question no one's asking: Why don't we expect the same fluency in reverse?

Executive leaders should be cyber aware. They should understand threat landscapes, risk vectors, and the cascading consequences of security failures. When a breach hits, ignorance isn't a viable defense strategy.

The responsibility for bridging this gap can't fall entirely on cybersecurity teams. It's time for a two-way conversation and that starts with leadership taking ownership of their cybersecurity education.

The Numbers Tell a Stark Story

According to Kaspersky's global study of 2,300 C-suite executives and 4,300 IT workers, 98% of organizations experience IT security miscommunication between technical and business leaders. More alarming: 62% of top-tier managers admit these communication breakdowns resulted in actual cybersecurity incidents.

But here's the most telling statistic: Only 51% of non-IT executives can confirm they're fully informed about their organization's cybersecurity readiness (Kaspersky, 2023). Nearly half of business leaders polled are making critical decisions about cyber risk without confidence in their understanding.

The Dynatrace 2024 Global CISO Report, surveying 1,300 CISOs worldwide, found 87% report application security remains a blind spot at the CEO and board level. Meanwhile, 83% believe their boards and CEOs need better understanding of the security posture of their organization to effectively assess business risk.

The financial impact is staggering. Companies spend an average of 37 days and $2.4 million to detect and recover from breaches, with average data breach costs reaching $4.88 million globally according to IBM's 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report. In financial services, that number jumps to $6.08 million per breach nearly 25% higher than the cross-industry average. Yet much of this damage could be prevented with better decision-making, not better firewalls.

The Knowledge Gap Is Real

Research reveals troubling cyber literacy gaps among senior leadership. More than one-in-ten top managers have never heard of essential cybersecurity terms including:

Botnet (12% unfamiliar)
APT attacks (11% unfamiliar)
Zero-day exploits (11% unfamiliar)
Zero trust architecture (11% unfamiliar)

This knowledge deficit becomes alarming when you consider only 12% of S&P 500 boards include a cybersecurity specialist. The organizational structure compounds this problem. In my experience, senior cybersecurity leaders are relegated to support roles rather than positioned as strategic advisors. They report up through CIOs or CTOs instead of having direct access to executive decision-making creating yet another layer of translation and potential miscommunication. We're asking leaders to make million-dollar security decisions about threats they can't even define.

AI Confusion Is Real

The knowledge gap becomes even more critical when it comes to emerging technologies. According to KPMG's 2024 CEO Outlook Survey, 37% of CEOs are unsure if their cybersecurity can keep pace with AI advancements, while 41% are unsure about securing necessary talent and solutions.

The World Economic Forum's 2024 Global Cybersecurity Outlook reveals a stark imbalance: 55.9% of leaders believe emerging technologies give cyber attackers an advantage, while only 8.9% believe new technologies favor defenders. Nearly 47% cite adversarial advancements powered by GenAI as their primary concern. Yet despite these concerns, a separate KPMG survey found 69% of CEOs are increasing cybersecurity investments to protect against AI threats.

The Pattern I've Seen Firsthand

As a cybersecurity senior leader, I've spent years in rooms where the same dynamic plays out:

Security leaders present 47 metrics no one understands. Executives nod politely, hoping they're not missing something critical. Budget approvals get made based on trust, not comprehension. Even worse, budget denials happen when leaders accept risks they can't actually quantify.

Critical investments get delayed because no one knows the right questions to ask.

And then it happens. The breach. The leaked data. The compromised systems. A phishing email slips through. A vendor mishandles credentials. Ransomware locks down operations.

Suddenly, everyone's asking the same question: "Why didn't we see this coming?"

The answer is usually sitting in slide 23 of a presentation no one understood.

A Real-World Example

For example, consider a mid-sized manufacturing company where the CISO presents quarterly metrics showing "99.7% uptime" and "zero critical vulnerabilities." The board approves the budget. Six months later, a supply chain attack compromises customer data because third-party vendor security wasn't properly evaluated.

The technical metrics looked good. The business questions were never asked: "What's our vendor risk exposure?" "How would we know if a supplier was compromised?" "What's our liability if customer data is breached through a partner?"

INP² Was Built to Change the Question

Instead of "Why didn't we catch this?", I want leadership teams to ask:

"What's our current cyber risk posture in business terms?"

"Where are we exposed and what's the potential impact?"

"What decisions do we need to make this quarter to reduce risk?"

"Do we understand the difference between being secure and being defensible?"

That kind of clarity can only come when information is processed properly and explained in a language decision-makers actually speak. That's the core of what INP² delivers.

What INP² Delivers (Now and Coming Soon)

We're not a cybersecurity news blog. I'm building a platform to bridge the gap between technical risk and strategic leadership.

Available Now:

Leadership-focused blog content on cyber risk in business terms
Weekly executive email briefing digestible in under 4 minutes
Practical frameworks for asking better security questions

Coming Soon:

Board Briefing Templates for security discussions
Cyber Risk Calculator that ties security gaps to real business impact
Cyber Response Simulation Scripts for executive teams
Premium resource library with industry-specific guidance
Executive Cyber Reality Check self-assessment

Who This Is For

If you're a VP, Director, COO, CFO, or CEO responsible for protecting data, operations, or compliance

If you're a board member or executive asked to "sign off" on security budgets

If you're a non-technical decision-maker expected to respond confidently during an incident

If you're a technical security leader (CISO, GRC manager, consultant) who wants your message to land better with executives.

INP² is for you.

The Future of Leadership Requires Cyber Literacy

The stakes have never been higher. According to recent research, 51% of respondents indicate directors and executives now face fines, jail time, or job loss following cyberattacks. With 75% of CEOs potentially facing personal liability for cyber-physical incidents, executive education has shifted from nice-to-have to business-critical. It's no longer just the CISO facing liability. And "we thought IT and Cyber had it handled" is no longer a defensible answer.

But Here's the Opportunity

The investment appetite is there. KPMG's 2024 survey of 200 C-suite cyber leaders from $1B+ revenue companies shows 76% are concerned about increasing threat sophistication, with 87% expecting budget increases up to 20% over the next two years.

Leaders who understand how to ask better questions and demand better reporting are the ones who will protect shareholder value, reputation, and resilience. Companies that get this right will see measurable returns on their cybersecurity investments.

INP² exists to help you become a cyber-aware leader.

Ready to Join the Movement?

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This is just the beginning and I'd love to have you with me.

This post wraps up my first week of blogging and helping people understand the critical communication gap between cybersecurity teams and business leadership. The data is clear: we have a problem. INP² is here to be part of the solution.