By linking planning and budgeting conversations with cyber priorities, leaders can strengthen resilience against future threats.
In our last post, we looked at how Cybersecurity Awareness Month offers an opportunity to extend protection outward by engaging your community. The next step is bringing that same intentionality to internal planning.
October marks the dual arrival of Cybersecurity Awareness Month and strategic planning season for many community financial institutions. This overlap is more than symbolic; it’s a reminder cybersecurity must be woven into long-term investment decisions.
By linking planning and budgeting conversations with cyber priorities, leaders can strengthen resilience against future threats.
Why planning and budgeting matter in financial services
Cybersecurity is no longer an IT-only concern; it’s a board-level issue directly tied to financial performance and reputation. Threat actors continue to evolve, leveraging ransomware, business email compromise, and account takeover schemes. At the same time, regulators are sharpening expectations, asking not only whether institutions can respond, but whether they are proactively investing in long-term cyber resilience.
Areas to prioritize in budget season
- Incident response and recovery — Fund tabletop exercises, test response plans, and update recovery strategies to reduce downtime.
- Vendor risk management — Strengthen oversight of fintech, cloud, and other third-party providers to verify they meet rising security requirements.
- Employee training — Replace one-and-done modules with ongoing, engaging training tracking results and behavior change.
- Cyber insurance — Reevaluate policies carefully, as underwriting becomes stricter and ransomware coverage more limited.
Questions for financial services leadership teams
Boards and executives should consider:
- Are cyber investments clearly tied to measurable business outcomes?
- Do we have sufficient coverage for ransomware, social engineering, or other emerging threats?
- How will we measure progress over the next 12 months?
How CLA can help financial institutions with cybersecurity
Cybersecurity and strategic planning may arrive on the calendar together, but the connection is intentional. By embedding resilience into budgets and plans, financial institutions can help protect account holders and prepare for the future with confidence.
Next in the series, we’ll turn to vendor and fintech oversight, an area where opportunity and risk often collide.
At CLA, we help financial institutions translate awareness into funded initiatives. We assess current cyber posture, evaluate risks, and prioritize investments to align with regulatory expectations and business strategy. The result is a defensible, sustainable plan allowing financial institutions to move forward confidently and securely.