When I speak with IT leaders, one theme comes up again and again: cybersecurity. Too often, the strategy is missing, outdated or cobbled together. The result? Teams spend their days firefighting instead of moving the business forward. And when you’re always on the back foot, you can’t deliver the kind of value the organisation needs from technology.
But why is this such a huge issue? Because every gap in your cyber defences puts your business at risk – not just technically, but financially and reputationally too. You only need to look at some of the high-profile cases that have hit the large UK retailers in the last few years to know the incredible impact that a cyber attack can have on an organisation.
In this post, we will look at the reasons why tech teams are patching their cybersecurity, why this is costing the organisation an undefined amount of money and what needs to happen to make sure your cybersecurity is robust and protects your organisation.
Hours delivered back to the business
SOX compliance in Settlement process automation
Success rate of bot case completion
For functional release of OBT, RTS and OGS
Strategy? What Strategy?
An alarming number of organisations don’t have a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy. Threats are evolving fast, but their defences are standing still. If the lack of a cybersecurity roadmap isn’t leaving tech leaders awake at night, then it probably should! The next ransomware attack or data breach could happen at any time, and successful organisations will be confident that they have the roles, responsibilities and response protocols in place to manage an attack with the least amount of impact possible.
A lack of strategy will lead to confusion, and nobody will know what they need to do to manage the attack.
What’s the real cost of patching your cybersecurity protocols?
This isn’t just about lost productivity. A poorly defined cyber posture can mean financial penalties, regulatory breaches, damaged customer trust, and in the worst cases, business failure. For the IT team, it’s relentless pressure: dealing with repeat issues, plugging gaps, and firefighting incidents they never had the tools or strategy to prevent in the first place. It chips away at morale and creates a culture where people are stretched, stressed and at risk of burnout.
Nobody wants to work in THAT team.
Sounds terrible. What can be done to break this cycle?
The way forward starts with a proper Cybersecurity Audit. That means understanding your vulnerabilities across systems, processes and people. From there, you need a strategic roadmap – one that sets your security posture, defines roles, puts in place incident response protocols and ensures compliance with standards such as GDPR. Training is critical too, because human error is still one of the biggest causes of breaches (phishing attacks remain the most common form of cybersecurity breach in the UK).
Leaning on proven frameworks such as NIST or ISO 27001, and working with cybersecurity consultants, gives structure and clarity. Crucially, this isn’t a one-off exercise. Continuous monitoring and regular updates keep you ahead of the threat curve.
Shouldn’t every tech team have a cybersecurity strategy in place?
We’d certainly recommend that they do! With a clear strategy, tech leaders gain confidence that risks are managed, incidents are handled quickly, and customer trust is protected. IT teams move from reactive firefighting to proactive risk management. Instead of panic when an incident hits, there’s a plan, a process and a team equipped to execute it.
This isn’t just about defence. A resilient organisation can focus on innovation, growth and the future—because the foundations are secure.
When I look at tech teams, I often ask a few simple questions:
- Do you have a current, comprehensive cybersecurity strategy?
- Have you acted on the findings of a recent audit?
- Is there clarity on who does what when a cyber threat emerges?
- Do your tech leaders really understand the level of risk you’re carrying?
- Is training a regular feature for your people?
If you can’t answer “yes” to these, your team is still stuck in firefighting mode. And if you stay there, you’ll never have the time and resources your tech team needs to deliver the big, strategic projects that your organisation needs you to focus on.
