The role of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) has expanded far beyond traditional responsibilities of risk management and incident response. As organizations accelerate cloud adoption, CISOs must now secure dynamic workloads, automate compliance, and foster collaboration across technical and business teams. This playbook outlines five strategic imperatives to help CISOs build enduring leadership and resilient, cloud-ready security programs:

1. Build Champions
2. Establish Trust with Development
3. Empower Developers to Secure Their Applications
4. Invest in Data and Automation
5. Automate Compliance as Much as Possible. Together, these “big rocks’’ provide a roadmap for fostering trust, driving innovation, and leading security through cloud transformation.