All businesses face active threats, such as cryptomining, phishing, trojans, and ransomware. You are aware that every organization has its own degree of risk, but can you honestly say you know yours? According to Bret Laughlin, founder of Ostrich Cyber-Risk, chief information security officers (CISOs) struggle to explain to leadership why they need to invest in security initiatives, incident counts, firewall hits, and other technical jargon that isn’t the right language for effective communication.
“It’s this lack of a common language that is a major cause for the chronic under-security of security programs,” he says. Ostrich’s new product, Birdseye, a cyber risk management application, is a simple cybersecurity assessment and reporting application enabling organizations to quickly identify these risks and vulnerabilities while bridging the communication gap between CISOs and key decision-makers.
Birdseye was the culmination of over a decade of rigorous testing and development, the blending of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) principles, industry-leading cyber program assessment frameworks, and practical technical controls measurements—all leading to the development of a transparent and traceable way to measure cyber risk, explains Laughlin. “Ostrich answers the question, ‘What does good security look like for my organization?’”
The cybersecurity experts at Ostrich stress how a strong cybersecurity posture requires a complete picture of the unique risks faced by an organization. An equally important factor: a security leader with the tools to accurately communicate the financial and real-world impact of those risks to the decision-makers, especially when they lack an extensive understanding of cybersecurity, a common issue.
Most boards can’t answer these six questions
According to Ostrich, most boards can’t answer these six questions: (1) Are you as secure as you think you are? (2) How do you compare to your peers? (3) Is your cyber risk aligned to your real risk? (4) Do you have material cyber-attacks? (5) Are you spending enough or too much?, and (6) What do you need to do? Unfortunately, the majority of business leaders can’t recognize what good security posture even looks like, especially when its within their own organization.
It’s safe to say the bulk of executives share the same cybersecurity challenges, and Birdseye solves the key problems, such as, you are too close, and you are far from informed; you can’t accurately assess your risk, evaluate your methods, or justify your investments; and, you know risk is increasing, but you are unaware how much its increased for your business.
“The average cost of a data breach rose from $3.86 million in 2020 to $4.24 million in 2021,”— 2021 IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report.
Ostrich understands the challenges facing security leaders. To solve the problem, it engineered a comprehensive, standards-based cyber risk assessment and reporting application that is easy-to-use and easy-to-understand. “With Birdseye, organizations are finally able to assess their unique risk fingerprint from a single pane of glass and generate actionable and shareable insights to help them develop a stronger and more strategic approach to cybersecurity,” says Laughlin.
In other words, Birdseye overcomes the communication issues between CISOs and stakeholders; it arms both parties with comprehensive, easy-to-understand data that encourages understanding and communication to drive effective action in the face of cyber risks.
Meanings behind the names Ostrich and Birdseye
What are the meanings behind the names Ostrich and Birdseye? Contrary to popular belief, when ostriches are faced with a risky situation, they don’t actually hide their heads in the sand, explains Laughlin. He went on to describe how ostriches are the fastest runners of any bird or two-legged animal and can sprint up to 45-mph and can see as far as 2.2 miles. They are also the largest living bird with a height up to 9-feet and can live over 40 years, he says. “Like the ostrich, it’s easy to misunderstand cyber risk—especially if you aren’t getting the right information.”
Laughlin says Birdseye is ideal for any company that has an individual or team responsible for their company’s cybersecurity program. Most typically, a CISO or equivalent who oversees a cybersecurity program and reports to leadership or a board of directors.
About Ostrich Cyber-Risk
Ostrich Cyber-Risk is a sole-source cyber risk assessment provider founded by cybersecurity experts who understood the challenges faced by security professionals. As such, they developed technology to provide a simplified, yet more intelligent approach to cyber risk management.
Ostrich Cyber-Risk, Inc. started as a collaborative project between Arlan McMillan (CISO – Kirkland & Ellis) and Bret Laughlin, founder and CEO of Ostrich Cyber-Risk, and previously, Braintrace, Inc., an international cybersecurity services and software company acquired by Sophos Inc. in July of 2021, to improve the mundane and manual process burdening C-level security executives attempting to accurately and efficiently determine and report on business cyber risk.
According to Laughlin, the goal was to “webify” a comprehensive approach and set of excel spreadsheets comprised of over a decade of know-how and analytics developed. This methodology has been presented to hundreds of security leaders, and pressure tested by business executives and Fortune 100 Boards.