This Is the Cyber Risk Article CEOs Actually Send Each Other

Friday. 3:47 in the afternoon. A fourteen billion dollar retailer.

A CFO opens an Excel file from someone he believes he knows. He has emailed this person more than two hundred times. It looks routine.

He clicks.

• By Monday morning, the company is dark.
• Customers cannot buy.
• Distribution stops. Trucks sit still.
• Billions in market value disappear before sunrise.

The board asks the CEO one question. “How did we not see this coming?”

He has no answer.

That was last month. The company is still not fully back. And the exact same lure is already sitting in inboxes across the country.

This is cyber risk. Not the buzzword version. The real version.

So what is cyber risk?

Cyber risk is not an IT problem. It is not a technology problem. Cyber risk is the collision of people, process, and technology.

It is financial exposure. It is psychology and manipulation. It is the breakdown of trust inside your business and across every vendor you rely on. It is complexity that grows faster than leadership can see. And it is the one risk that can take your company down in hours because one person clicks, one insider acts, or one vendor leaves a door open.

That is what cyber risk actually is.

If you understand how fast this can happen, then here are the ten things you must personally take ownership of in 2026. Not delegated. Not assumed. Not delayed.

Ten CEO Actions for 2026

1. Put cyber risk on every board agenda and speak to it in financial terms.
2. Know your maximum probable loss the same way you know your burn rate.
3. Move toward zero trust.
4. Secure your AI systems before you promote them.
5. Begin the shift toward post-quantum cryptography.
6. Treat every vendor as if they were already in your environment.
7. Train yourself and your board on deepfakes and modern manipulation.
8. Run a no-notice ransomware simulation and sit in the hot seat.
9. Close the talent gap. Hire, train, or outsource real expertise.
10. Use compliance and transparency as revenue advantages.

If you do these ten, you will sleep better. If you ignore them, you will eventually become someone else’s opening story.

Conclusion

I have spent more than twenty years walking into companies the morning after everything fell apart. Most never believed it could happen to them. Most never saw the gap that cost them everything.

Cyber risk does not care how long it took you to build your business. It only cares about the one place you were not looking.

The storm is building. Preparation is the only advantage left.

PS

If the attacker finds the gap first, it becomes a crisis. If you find it first, it becomes a plan.

Byline

Mike Fitzpatrick, Founder and CEO, NCX Group, Inc.

Twenty-four years of cyber risk, due diligence, and business resilience consulting.

Web: https://ncx.maverickbuild.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ncxgroup X: https://x.com/ncxgroup

Repost from LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cyber-risk-article-ceos-actually-send-each-other-mike-fitzpatrick-yetxf/

Let’s Talk

If it’s been more than a year since your last cybersecurity assessment—or if you’ve never done one—now is the time.

👉 Schedule a Strategy Call with NCX Group