5 Things That Keep CIOs Up at Night (Hint: It’s Not always the Obvious Stuff)

The recent global digital outage did more than disrupt commerce and business operations in multiple industries. It sent a harsh and frightening reminder to chief information officers (CIOs) that new threats will emerge around any corner at any moment—and they must be prepared.

Many CIOs lose sleep anticipating a middle-of-the-night cybersecurity alert. Their concerns run the gamut from the newest ransomware attack to the expanding threat vectors of edge computing and the internet of things. Add in big-impact issues such as artificial intelligence as a double-edged cybersecurity sword, the rising costs of data breaches, and a deepening and widening cybersecurity skills gap, and there’s no wonder why sleeplessness plagues these C-suiters.

But while the threats and their implications weigh heavily on the minds of technology executives, they are actually symptomatic of bigger, more strategic issues. Here are the five that stand out as relentless causes of insomnia and anxiety.

1. Reducing Complexity Before It Strangles the Organization

It may sound like belaboring the obvious, but complexity is a substantial and still-growing threat to solid cybersecurity. In fact, complexity is the No. 1 factor cited by countless studies and research reports. Fortunately, organizations are investing heavily in digital infrastructure to make their operations more efficient and transform how they compete. However, much of the purchasing, deployment, and management of new technologies and tools is done on an ad hoc, transactional basis. As a result, there are huge amounts of incompatibilities and inefficiencies in everything from antimalware to ransomware detection.

These disparate cybersecurity silos inhibit communications about threats, bad actors, and potential remedies, making the day-to-day life of a cybersecurity leader more challenging every day. As a result, many organizations are embracing new approaches, such as integrated cybersecurity platforms. This move toward platformization is a major step forward for CIOs who are looking for any way possible to reduce complexity.

2. Building a More Beneficial and Honest Relationship with the C-Suite and Board

As cybersecurity grows in complexity and criticality, boards of directors are becoming more interested and involved. The old practices of making periodic presentations at board meetings have been replaced with more frequent, strategic, and at times “urgent” communications. The prevalence of communications tools like Zoom and Microsoft Teams makes it far easier to discuss cybersecurity threats and challenges in real time, rather than waiting for a quarterly board presentation.

While these conversations can be great ways to demonstrate their business acumen to the board in framing cybersecurity in an operational, marketing, or financial light, the reality is that these meetings are often fraught with uncertainty and complexity. That’s why it’s more important than ever to position the CIO as a critical, integral, and strategic part of the leadership team in the eyes of the board. That’s not to say it’s easy.

The term “boardroom politics” is widely used and understood by savvy executives, creating further stressful scenarios. CIOs need to think about their language for the board, with a focus on 360-degree problem-and-solution discussions in an honest, candid manner. Although many of those conversations focus on risk, it’s also important for CIOs to talk about how cybersecurity strategies and tactics actually increase business opportunity.

3. Becoming an Expert in Resource Management

This is actually an amalgam of challenges, requiring deft skill in assessing and prioritizing challenges even as new ones emerge. Consider these facts:

• The cybersecurity skills gap is huge, and despite a surge in hiring around the world, that gap is still growing. The World Economic Forum noted that the global cybersecurity workforce grew by more than 12% in 2023—but there still is a global shortage of more than 4 million cybersecurity-related workers.
• Organizations continue to allocate an increasing portion of their technology budgets to cybersecurity readiness and defense—yet budgets still often aren’t sufficient to keep up as threats expand in volume, velocity, creativity, and effectiveness.
• Automation and intelligence-based tools are helping immeasurably, but new threats are emerging faster than ever, blunting the impact of these productivity improvements. Research indicates that a cybercrime is committed every 37 seconds, putting CIOs on a continuous treadmill of threat and response.

The most successful CIOs are the ones who understand how to accumulate, assess, and marshal the right resources at the right time to make the most out of what they already have. Questions like “can we leverage AI copilots to glean operational efficiencies and reduce the outsourcing budget or at least mitigate the need to expand it?” are complex to answer but critical to success. They must also fine-tune their abilities to go to the gatekeepers, lobby effectively, and use political guile to point out the costs of not putting together the proper and sufficient cybersecurity resource portfolio.

4. Prioritizing Data Storage and Security for AI Usage

A 2022 study reported that 63% of the respondents used the cloud “heavily.” The use of cloud services in 2021 was 59%, and 53% in 2020. A 2023 Cloud Security Alliance report, surprisingly, revealed that 98% of organizations worldwide use cloud services. Not only do CIOs need to be more than cognizant of data storage, it needs to be a top priority.

Not long ago, data storage and security were already complex issues, but AI has added a new layer of urgency. The vast amounts of data required to train and run AI models weren’t on most CIOs’ radars 18 months ago, yet today, these models demand large-scale, secure data environments. CIOs now face the challenge of balancing data security, privacy regulations, and managing the growing storage needs that AI technologies require—all while ensuring that sensitive data isn’t exposed or mishandled.

This added burden requires CIOs to rethink their storage and security strategies, introducing new protocols and tools for safeguarding data across these AI-driven environments. What was once an afterthought is now a critical need for staying ahead of threats and maintaining operational integrity.

5. Taking Care of Professional Needs and Personal Well-Being

The responsibilities and challenges facing a CIO are significant and complex. Sure, those are prestigious, generally well-paying positions. But the pressure they are under has always been intense and often unacknowledged. Now, that pressure is building in direct relationship to the stakes of a failure. It’s important to keep in mind that CIOs may have trouble sleeping at night because they are, unlike their AI counterparts, human.

The life of a CIO can be tremendously satisfying and a source of great professional pride. It also can be terrifyingly confusing and fraught with risk. Those executives—and the organizations that employ and rely on them—need to understand and focus on big picture issues and not get caught up in the technical minutiae. While CIOs certainly need to focus on how to turn data into business opportunity and competitive advantage, they can’t do that if this critical asset is in perpetual jeopardy.

A multitude of CIOs may find more nights sleepless than others, but embracing proactive techniques and acknowledging the risks, rather than ignoring them, could be the first steps toward getting a good night’s sleep.

For more information on how you can address the skills shortage gap, check out our Cybersecurity Perspectives article.