Page 115 - Cyber Defense eMagazine RSAC Special Edition 2025

infrastructure environments that have experienced significant corporate restructuring through acquisition
activities.

Companies should be encouraged to evaluate the overlap of existing technologies (asset
discovery/management platforms, network IDSs, network performance monitoring, etc.) and determine
which functions are being performed by which tools. Tool rationalization studies to help better understand
these overlapping functions are a great way to reduce technology debt.

These tools are often cited as the “mechanism” or centralized data collection point for determining
compliance with security frameworks by providing evidence and artifacts. In some cases, tools are used
as the primary system backup/recovery method—a foundational element of business continuity planning.

If you could give one critical piece of advice to CISOs about ensuring safe operations, what would
it be?

Whether we are looking at this challenge through an operational or organisational safety lens, cyber risk
is a critical business risk. An incident will impact everyone.

Communicating cybersecurity, and more specifically the different approaches to managing cyber risk, to
a board is not an easy task for CISOs.

But we can speak to its ROI. Companies can enhance corporate value through improved performance
by understanding their unique operational risks and managing these proactively. They can do this a
number of ways by applying the right combination of actionable insights from digital tools, field techniques
and expertise from engineering and data science. No singular solution exists because each company’s
risk profile is unique.

There's more work and training to be done to fully integrate cybersecurity into organisational practices
that reinforce operational readiness.

About the Expert

Blake Benson, Senior Director, Cybersecurity Practice Lead. Blake Benson
leads the industrial cybersecurity practice at ABS Consulting, where he works
closely with industry stakeholders, government leaders and senior executives
across critical infrastructure sectors. His responsibilities include providing a
strategic understanding of operational technology (OT) cybersecurity risks to the
nation’s essential assets and operations. Blake has expertise in solving complex
risk-based problems and specializes in developing tailored, environment-
specific approaches to help both government and commercial clients develop
and implement the security solutions and controls necessary to manage cyber
risk.

Blake joined ABS Consulting in 2019 and is a Knoxville, Tennessee native and United States Air Force
(USAF) veteran. While in the USAF, Blake was a founding member of one of the first operational cyber
units.

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