As digital infrastructure becomes more deeply embedded in every aspect of business operations, the risks tied to cybersecurity are no longer confined to the IT department. In 2025, cybersecurity has become a core business concern, and a financial one at that. Across the globe, cybercrime is projected to cost businesses over USD 10.5 trillion annually, with repercussions ranging from operational downtime to reputational ruin (Cybercrime Magazine, 2025). 

Also read: Reducing the Financial Risks of Cybercrime

CFOs are increasingly stepping up, not just as budget holders, but as risk owners.

In this article, we explore the evolving role of CFOs in managing cyber risk, and feature insights from Leonard Haidy, Business Director at Cisometric, who brings operational and strategic experience from both the cybersecurity and payments industries.

Cyber Risk Is Business Risk

Cyber threats are no longer limited to technical malfunctions, but they’re now one of the most urgent financial risks companies face today. A single breach can derail budgets, halt revenue flow, and trigger months of unplanned spending.

“Coming from the payment gateway industry, I’ve seen how one incident, like system downtime, can lead to reputational damage, loss of customer trust, and financial penalties,” says Leonard.

In fact, According to IBM, the global average cost of a data breach in 2024 reached USD 4.88 million per incident (IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024). And that number only tells part of the story. Hidden costs such as regulatory fines, incident response, disrupted operations, and customer churn often exceed the initial damage. Also not including the downstream effects like response, legal consulting, or internal process overhauls. In industries with slim margins or high customer churn rates, even a short disruption can wipe out quarterly gains.

Also read: Financial Online Scams to Watch Out For This Year

Leonard emphasizes that even less visible events, such as partial outages or unauthorized access attempts, can have significant consequences:

“It’s not just about whether something crashes. It’s about how long it delays business operations, whether you have to pause transactions, or how many internal resources get pulled away from strategic work just to contain a problem.”

The financial exposure is real, whether it comes in the form of lost transactions, delayed deliverables, or regulatory compliance costs. “Cybersecurity is no longer just an IT concern; it’s a core financial risk,” shares Leonard. This shift is pushing cyber risk into the same category as market volatility, supply chain disruptions, or credit defaults. 

Also read: How Supply-Chain Cyber Attacks Can Take Down Your Business

Why Cybersecurity Is a CFO’s Business

Today, cybersecurity is a financial, operational, and reputational issue, making it squarely a concern for CFOs as much as CISOs.

“Cybersecurity is fundamentally about building and maintaining client trust, and that trust doesn’t come cheap,” says Leonard. “CFOs need to understand that the impact of cyber threats goes far beyond revenue continuity, investor perspectives, or market valuation.”

CFOs are uniquely positioned to assess business impact and risk exposure in monetary terms. They can quantify how much downtime costs the business per hour, evaluate potential losses from disrupted customer services, and understand how cyber incidents affect strategic financial planning. But more importantly, they play a key role in aligning cyber investment with business priorities, balancing cost-efficiency.

Leonard explains that this shift is already happening:

“More CFOs are now working hand-in-hand with CISOs to evaluate risk exposure, plan for recovery, and assess the need for cyber insurance. They’re not just signing off on cybersecurity budgets, they’re shaping the overall risk posture of the company.”

As emphasized in Kovrr’s 2025 report, the CEO sets the tone for cyber risk culture, but the CFO ensures that tone is backed by budgets and defensible decisions. In fact, the new generation of CFOs treat cybersecurity the same way they treat legal or operational risk: as a core part of the company’s financial strategy.

A mature CFO-CISO conversation, Leonard adds, is like a household discussion between a planner and a protector. “It’s about asking: If this system goes down for three days, what’s our exposure? What will it cost? Do our security controls match our actual business risk?”

The rise of data protection regulations like our PDP Law (Undang-Undang Perlindungan Data Pribadi) and real-world impact of breaches have accelerated this shift. As Leonard notes, “These events didn’t just cause reputational damage, they exposed serious financial and operational risks. That’s why CFOs need to be at the table from the beginning of cybersecurity conversations, not just when it’s time to pay the bill.”

Also read: ISO 27701 Certification: Enhancing Data Privacy and  Enabling PDP Compliance for Businesses

In essence, cybersecurity today is less about defending the network and more about defending the business model. The CFO’s involvement is critical, not just to allocate funds, but to ensure every decision around cyber risk is tied back to organizational goals, stakeholder expectations, and long-term resilience.

What Smart CFOs Are Prioritizing in 2025

According to Leonard, the most forward-looking CFOs today are focusing on three key areas:

1. Securing Third-Party Vendors

“Don’t let your vendors become your weakest link,” he warns. Evaluating how third-party partners store and secure your data is now a must-have in due diligence. Leonard notes that too often, vendor selection focuses solely on cost and capabilities, overlooking how those vendors manage sensitive business data. “In many cases, breaches originate from third-party vendors who lack proper safeguards,” he adds.

Also read: Why Vendor Due Diligence is Important

2. Using AI to Combat AI-Driven Threats

“Hackers are already using AI, so we need to do the same,” Leonard emphasizes.
CFOs must ensure their organizations are investing not just in human capital, but also in intelligent systems that can scale defense and detection efforts faster than traditional methods.

Also read: AI and Machine Learning, the Future of Cybersecurity

3. Planning for Operational Disruption

Whether it’s ransomware, a supply chain compromise, or internal errors, CFOs must ask: How do we keep the business running when something goes wrong?

Leonard advises mapping out critical services, estimating potential downtime costs, and investing in recovery playbooks well before a crisis hits.

Alongside these three focus areas, Leonard also stresses the need to move from reactive to proactive cybersecurity planning:

“Too often, companies overspend on tools without asking whether they have the right people or processes to manage them,” he observes. “Good cyber planning isn’t just about compliance, but also about resilience.”

Instead of waiting for incidents to happen, smart CFOs are now investing in readiness, such as tabletop exercises, attack simulations, recovery planning, and real-time monitoring. At Cisometric, Leonard shares that they align cybersecurity with core business services and simulate threats regularly to test their preparedness. “We define risk appetite, simulate attacks, and review cyber spend to ensure it’s not just efficient, but effective,” he adds.

By shifting toward this proactive mindset, CFOs are no longer just budgeting for cybersecurity, they are helping to shape a future-ready organization that can absorb shocks and maintain trust, even under pressure.

Final Thoughts

With today’s digital-first economy, where trust, uptime, and data security shape the backbone of business sustainability, the role of the CFO is undergoing a transformation. No longer just gatekeepers of capital, CFOs are becoming architects of operational resilience and strategic risk mitigation.

Cyber threats are no longer isolated to technical issues, but they’re also financial liabilities, reputational risks, and operational disruptors. Smart CFOs in 2025 recognize this shift. They understand that being proactive is a necessity. They’re aligning cyber strategy with business outcomes, scrutinizing vendor security, investing in preparedness, and using AI to innovate and to defend.

The key takeaway? Cybersecurity is a financial issue. It deserves the same strategic thinking, resource allocation, and performance monitoring as any other business priority.

Need help evaluating your cyber risk exposure or building a roadmap that aligns cybersecurity with your business goals?

Get in touch with Cisometric’s team of experts, including business leaders like Leonard, who understand both the operational and financial realities of cybersecurity.

Contact us today and let’s make your business cyber-ready for 2025 and beyond, click here.

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Reference:

Reducing the Financial Risks of Cybercrime

CFOs and Cybersecurity: Top Threats and How to Prevent Them

The CEO, CFO, and Board’s Expanding Role in Cyber Risk Management

The Cost of Reactive vs. Proactive Cybersecurity Measures

Top cybersecurity priorities for CFOs

Cybercrime To Cost The World $10.5 Trillion Annually By 2025

Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024