Cybersecurity has undergone a profound transformation over the past two decades. Once a narrowly scoped discipline focused on control and compliance, the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) role has steadily evolved into something far more strategic and integral to business success. We are now entering the era of CISO 5.0, where cybersecurity is no longer a siloed function—it is a business function.
From Control to Enablement
In its early days, cybersecurity was rooted in compliance and control. The CISO’s job was to enforce policies, check boxes, and ensure that the organization didn’t run afoul of regulators. Security was something the business had to do—often reluctantly—and was viewed primarily as a cost center.
As cyber threats grew more sophisticated and digital transformation accelerated, the scope of the CISO expanded. CISOs started working closer with IT and product teams, learning the language of the business, and aligning security initiatives with business goals. Security began to shift from “how do we control risk?” to “how do we enable the business to move faster—safely?”
The Age of Resilience
From that evolution came what many now refer to as the Age of Resilience. This shift was catalyzed by the realization that breaches were inevitable, and it was no longer enough to aim for impenetrability. Instead, organizations focused on minimizing impact and recovering quickly. Cyber resilience emphasized continuity, adaptability, and operational durability in the face of disruption. CISOs became stewards not just of controls, but of risk-informed agility. Their influence grew as they worked hand-in-hand with the broader C-suite, advising on everything from supply chain decisions to cloud migration and customer trust.
Cyber is a Business Function
Now, we are entering a new chapter: Cyber as a Business Function. In this modern era, cybersecurity is expected to understand how the business runs—not just how it can be protected. The modern CISO needs to think like a COO, understand product roadmaps, and partner with teams across the business to accelerate innovation, not just defend it.
To keep up, CISOs must now engage deeply with business-class topics like:
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Delivery: Cyber and anti-fraud defenses are features that must be delivered within the rapid development cycles and CI/CD pipelines. They cannot be orthogonal to the delivery timeline.
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Automation: Cyber and anti-fraud defenses need to be operationalized within automation platforms to reduce manual effort, improve accuracy, scale with business needs and support rapid release of new defenses on demand.
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User Experience (UX): The security and anti-fraud controls must improve the customer experience, create trust and brand loyalty not diminish or interrupt it.
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User Support: The end users who are impacted by the defense feature must be supported with real time, threat, device and OS specific remediation to get them back into the app as fast as possible.
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Business Intelligence & Decisioning: Threat intelligence and data needs to be transformed into business intelligence that can be used for build-time and run-time decisioning to maintain user engagement and build trust.
In this context, traditional compliance-based policies alone and even shift left strategies are no longer sufficient—especially if they slow down business efficiency, hinder innovation, or damage user experience. CISOs must now operate with the mindset of a business leader, investing in platforms, measuring outcomes, and delivering cyber capabilities as an agile part of the roadmap, alongside and at the speed of the business. Cyber teams must choose tools and technologies that enable integration with business operations, and that support rapid deployment of defenses across fraud, identity, data protection, and beyond.
Digital CISOs Win Because They Reduce Friction
The businesses that thrive in the digital age are those that eliminate operational friction. Cybersecurity can no longer be an exception to this rule.
By thinking and acting digitally, cyber teams can reduce manual overhead, automate decisioning, and embed protection directly into workflows. This not only improves business velocity, but also allows cybersecurity to become a system-level function—delivering value consistently and predictably over time.
In doing so, CISOs position themselves and their teams not just as protectors of the business, but as partners in growth. Cyber becomes a feature of the product, an enhancer of trust, and a key component in delivering customer value. CISO 5.0 is not about leaving compliance or control behind. It’s about building a future where cybersecurity is a strategic enabler of business success—one that delivers speed, intelligence, and security in lockstep with the needs of the modern enterprise.
