Digitization, global use of cloud technology, Web 3.0, and 5G: all these technologies are opening up ever more comprehensive and diverse opportunities for people, companies and societies to cooperate, interact and communicate. At the same time, they represent a completely new dimension of complexity for potential cybersecurity risks. This publication focuses on those aspects and questions of cybersecurity regarding organizations, management and the workforce that are often overlooked in the current discourse.
How do CISOs structure their teams with experts? How should communication and cooperation be designed to ensure the smoothest possible interaction between all those involved and affected in combating and preventing cyberattacks? What do managers need to pay attention to? What approach favors bringing CISO team experts into productive dialogue and constructive cooperation on cyber defense with the entire organization? What does addressing cybersecurity mean from an individual perspective?
From a discussion between Dr. Ralf Schneider, CIO of Allianz SE, and Andreas Slogar, Senior Manager and Business Agility Expert at Deloitte, for episode #11 of the Deloitte podcast Sprint! New Work - New Mindset , the idea emerged to shed light on these cybersecurity perspectives and to delve deeper into the matter with several well-known experts. The focus of these reflections is on cybernetics: Cybernetics is the science, art, and craft of controlling – and generalized governing, regulating, and directing – through communication, as defined by Prof. Dr. Fredmund Malik, founder, owner and chairman of Malik and habilitated professor of the University St. Gallen.
Cybernetics encompasses a multitude of models, tools, and insights. All of these are becoming more and more prevalent in companies, i.e., highly complex systems, which offer the potential to leverage the opportunities and manage the risks of the technological developments mentioned above. From this perspective, the co-authors consider the role of management in organizations in their contributions. They examine the structures of cooperation in companies and the effects on the individual employee in the context of cybersecurity and cybernetics.
Startup founder and renowned cybersecurity expert Dr. Karsten Nohl kicks off the first chapter with an insight into the current state of cybersecurity. He outlines the dynamics of the race between hackers attacking companies and the cybersecurity teams fending them off and protecting companies from cyber risks. Next, in the transcript of the podcast conversation mentioned above, Dr. Ralf Schneider describes Allianz SE's global IT practice and how their experts, CIOs, CISOs, and he himself proceeded to think and execute cybersecurity in a completely new, participative, and decentralized way using the power of cybernetics. In his contribution, Prof. Dr. Fredmund Malik provides a focused insight into cybernetics, the development of this interdisciplinary science and its importance, especially in our century of networking.
In the fourth chapter, Andreas Slogar examines the organizational and collaborative structure perspective of CISO teams. He discusses those elements of cybernetics which enable cybersecurity professionals and the organizational units of a company. These units collaborate to address real-time events constructively and proactively.
Finally, Web3 and well-being expert Thy-Diep Ta emphasizes the critical importance of antifragility, cybernetics and mindfulness in the context of the future of work, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) and the emerging Token Economy.
Download the german publication „Cybersecurity: The supreme discipline for agile organizations and cybernetic governance” here and learn more.
See here the englisch version of „Cybersecurity: The supreme discipline for agile organizations and cybernetic governance”.