Why CFOs need a seat at the cyber table

Jeff Olejnik

For years, cybersecurity has been treated as an IT issue. Today, that mindset is outdated — and downright dangerous.

Cyber risk is a direct threat to your company’s balance sheet and reputation. It affects everything from cash flow and insurance premiums to client retention and regulatory exposure. 

If you’re still thinking of cyber as “IT’s problem,” you may be overlooking your firm’s biggest financial risk.

How risk has changed

Cyber incidents are no longer rare or limited to global enterprises. Mid-market companies are prime targets because they hold valuable data and financial assets but often lack deep security resources.  

The fallout goes far beyond inconvenience: 

• Ransomware can freeze access to critical systems.
• Business email compromise can trigger fraudulent payments.
• Data breaches can expose sensitive information, leading to lawsuits or fines.
• Operational downtime can halt production, shipments or service.

These aren’t IT glitches. They’re balance sheet events. And in a climate of tight margins and investor scrutiny, the cost of being unprepared is rising fast.

Cybersecurity is a financial risk 

Leaders don’t hesitate to invest in insurance, audits or legal reviews to manage enterprise risk. Cybersecurity belongs in the same category. 

The biggest financial hits from cyber incidents often occur outside the IT budget: 

• Legal settlements and regulatory fines
• Revenue loss from outages or reputational damage
• Time diverted to crisis response
• Customer churn and contract terminations
• Loan covenant breaches due to delayed reporting
• Valuation impacts uncovered in M&A due diligence

Yet too often, CFOs aren’t engaged in cyber discussions until after a breach. That’s a problem.

Finance leaders should be involved in:

• Budgeting for tools, training, backup and recovery.
• Modeling loss scenarios to expose gaps and quantify potential impacts.
• Evaluating risk appetite alongside credit and operational risks.
• Driving metrics that tie cyber posture to business performance.
• Analyzing build versus outsource options to balance cost, capability and risk.

How to bridge the CFO-CIO disconnect 

Cyber conversations often get lost in translation: CIOs talk infrastructure, CFOs hear cost. When IT needs aren’t framed as business outcomes, critical investments stall and risks grow.

CFOs don’t need to become cyber experts, but they should understand:

• Which data and systems are most critical to operations and cash flow.
• Where the business is most vulnerable (remote access, vendor portals, financial processes).
• Which scenarios have been modeled — and what response plans exist.
• How long recovery would take after a breach — and what it could cost.
• Which compliance, regulatory or contract requirements apply.

When cybersecurity is tied to financial and operational strategy, leaders can see the case for investing in resilience.

Cyber risk is also an M&A issue

In deals, cyber-readiness is now a key source of leverage — or liability. Buyers and investors increasingly expect to see: 

• Documented cyber policies and response plans.
• Access controls and data protection protocols.
• Employee training on phishing and social engineering.
• Business continuity plans that include cyber incidents.
• Insurance coverage with adequate limits and response times.
• Proof of regulatory compliance (e.g., PCI, CMMC, HIPAA).

If those elements are missing, deals slow down, valuations drop, or buyers walk away. 

How finance leaders can protect against cyber risk 

Finance leaders can take five steps to play a more active role in cyber risk management: 

1. Identify your crown jewels: Identify systems or data that would cause the biggest disruption if compromised, then prioritize their visibility and protection. Use penetration testing and attack simulations to gauge their exposure.  
2. Pressure test your response plans: If a ransomware attack hit tomorrow, who does what? How quickly can you recover? Tabletop exercises reveal gaps in coordination and speed.   
3. Quantify the risk in dollars: Estimate the cost of downtime, recovery and lost business. Then develop mitigation plans to reduce your risk to acceptable levels. 
4. Integrate cyber into enterprise risk: Track cyber alongside supply chain, credit and compliance risks. Review risk tolerances at the leadership level, not just in IT. 
5. Make cyber hygiene a leadership priority: Model strong behaviors around access control, phishing response and software compliance. Define key metrics and track them over time, like you would cash flow or profitability.

Take the next step

Cybersecurity is no longer just a technology issue — it’s a financial one. For mid-market leaders, the question isn’t whether to act, but how quickly. Resilience has become a competitive advantage, and it starts with knowing your exposure, testing your response and investing where it matters most.

Join Wipfli’s upcoming webinar series on how to get cyber-ready and risk-smart. We’re sharing practical guidance on how to align cybersecurity with finance, operations and enterprise risk management. Register now.

Jeff Olejnik is partner at Wipfli.