Why CISOs need to pay attention to geopolitical trends

Keeping up with geopolitical trends isn't just another thing on the to-do list for CISOs – it's essential. Here's why

Enterprise cybersecurity teams and CISOs have a lot to worry about. Weak passwords, zero-day vulnerabilities, patch management, and many more concerns already occupy a lot of their bandwidth. Do they really need to add geopolitics to their overloaded plate?

Unfortunately, they do. There’s been much discussion recently about the way that the CISO role has expanded to incorporate broader risk management. It’s important to include geopolitical tensions and trends among the risks that are being assessed. Otherwise, CISOs could be taken by surprise by an attack that’s more cunning and coordinated than they expected, and/or arrives from a vector that went overlooked.

Geopolitical issues lie behind an increasing percentage of cyberattacks, especially as states realise that they can cause a lot of damage for minimal outlay and risk. In the last few years, Russia carried out many attacks on critical infrastructure in Ukraine; the Swedish government was subjected to DDoS attacks when it applied to join NATO; and Chinese cyberattacks on Taiwan escalated massively over the past year.

Geopolitical tensions are starting to replace profit as the driving force behind private attacks. As a result, cyber-attacks are becoming more sophisticated, more numerous, and more widely targeted, and they have spread outside the purely technical to include misinformation, fakes, and reputational harm.

Here are some of the reasons why geopolitics deserve a place on every responsible CISO’s watchlist.

Cybersecurity needs to shift detection up a gear

As states and major political organisations pour resources into cyberattacks, they are becoming both more sophisticated and more numerous. You aren’t just combatting individuals. Cyber warfare attacks are often carefully prepared, mercilessly executed, and part of a long-term strategy.

Coordinated attacks use AI and Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) for far greater consequences than only disrupting your business operations. For example, a 2024 advisory from CISA warns about a Chinese plan to infiltrate critical infrastructure in Guam and then launch a coordinated, wide scale attack.

Many CCP-sponsored attacks aim to steal IP and personal data. Once they infiltrate enterprise systems, they’ll lurk unnoticed for as long as possible, unlike profit-motivated hackers who are more likely to unleash ransomware fairly quickly. That means you’re fighting a different type of attack that’s harder to detect using familiar methods.

One type of protection isn’t enough anymore. Cybersecurity services should layer defences, keeping multiple types of threats and vectors in mind. Detection, in particular, should be a high priority, using continuous monitoring to spot perimeter attacks, vulnerabilities, and anomalies in your systems.

Attacks can come from unexpected directions

As mentioned above, profit is no longer the motivating factor. Now nation states, hacktivists, and politically motivated gangs aim not just to extract money from companies, but to destabilise whole economies, disrupt government operations, erode social trust, and sow chaos.

Shifting geopolitical concerns, moreover, can also redefine what constitutes an attractive target. Vital utilities like oil, electricity, and water might be obvious, but what about logistics companies or food manufacturers? Enterprises could also be targeted, because they are part of an industry that’s suddenly been declared the villain, just as health insurance has become a bogeyman that ranks alongside weapons manufacturers.

This matters, because you can’t predict possible attacks if you only think in terms of gangs seeking profit. Your IP, your data, or even just your downtime could be the true prize. Attackers might use you as a link in a long digital supply chain to reach their ultimate target, to create havoc, or just because crashing your website puts them in the headlines, increasing a general sense of unease in the public.

Reputation is the new battleground

CISOs and enterprise security teams are used to protecting systems, networks, applications, and databases from attacks that disrupt operations or steal data. They aren’t necessarily used to thinking about reputational attacks, and that ignorance creates vulnerabilities.

The last few years have shown the increasing power of disinformation and misinformation campaigns. AI-powered deepfakes and old-fashioned lies can spread across social media networks in minutes, tearing down brand reputations that took decades to build. Counterfeit websites and highly convincing social engineering attacks are favoured weapons in cyberwarfare.

Dismissing such concerns as the preserve of marketers and social media experts would be a mistake. CISOs need to be informed about the latest geopolitical issues, whether that’s social upheaval, domestic unrest, or foreign meddling in upcoming elections, so that they can anticipate potential disinformation and subterfuge that could harm their organisation.

Geopolitical cyber risks require a new approach

With geopolitical issues becoming the fulcrum around which increasingly more cyberattacks pivot, CISOs need to adjust their strategies accordingly. Collaboration with other enterprises, sharing information about threats and techniques, and looking across borders and industries for insights into potential attacks are now vital for reliable cybersecurity defences.

Real-time threat intelligence has become table stakes, as is continuous monitoring using AI that learns to recognise normal behaviour and flags any anomalies. By keeping informed about shifting geopolitical tensions, CISOs can refine their methods, layer protections, and maintain robust defences for their enterprise.

Read more

When CISO meets CCO: leading cyber risk management – Security and compliance leadership must closely collaborate to effectively lead the management of cyber risk across the organisation

Sadie Williamson

Sadie Williamson is the founder of Williamson Fintech Consulting. With over a decade in the fintech arena under her belt, she helps fintech firms to develop custom solutions targeting a variety of verticals. Her...

Related Topics

CISO