Byline: Hosted by Jo Peterson · ClearTech Loop
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Episode Summary: From Risk Posture to Financial Fluency
CISOs love to talk about risk appetite—but few can define it in business terms. In this ClearTech Loop episode, Jo Peterson sits down with Bil Harmer, Founder & CEO of of Killswitch Advisory, to reframe cybersecurity as a financial model, not a sunk cost.
Harmer argues that CISOs need to stop chasing frameworks and start aligning cyber strategy with the company’s balance sheet. The discussion centers around the real economic levers of security—acceptable loss, contract governance, and the financial risk calculus every CISO should master.
Three Financial Realities for Modern CISOs
1. Security is a Cost of Survival — Not Safety
“Cybersecurity should honestly be proportional to the risk accepted. What is it that you can and can’t accept?”
— bil harmer
You can’t buy your way to zero risk. Harmer challenges CISOs to understand their company’s profit engines and fund controls where failure would actually end the business.
2. Cyber Risk = Financial Risk
— bil harmer
“AI won’t testify for you “Truthfully, cyber risk is the financial risk model.”
Boards don’t want vulnerability counts—they want to understand exposure in dollars. CISOs fluent in financial language can shape boardroom strategy instead of just briefing it.
3. Governance Starts in Procurement
“Go back and look at your SaaS contracts with all of your vendors… So theoretically, they can use your data to train their LLMs.”
— bil harmer
AI governance is now a legal and financial discipline. Start by carving out data rights, AI clauses, and liability boundaries in every vendor agreement.
What You’ll Learn
- How to turn cybersecurity into a measurable business function
- Why “acceptable loss” is a financial—not technical—conversation
- The new role of contracts and procurement in AI governance
- How to quantify cyber exposure in board-ready financial terms
- What it takes to make security investments pay for themselves
About The Guest: Bil Harmer
Bil Harmer, CISSP, CISM, CIPP, is the Founder & CEO of Killswitch Advisory, helping startups and fast-growth companies secure their momentum without slowing down innovation.
He’s led programs for global financial institutions, governments, and SaaS providers—and remains one of the clearest voices calling for financial accountability and realism in cybersecurity.
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Closing Thoughts: The CFO-CISO Convergence
The next generation of CISOs will speak in financial terms—linking cybersecurity spend directly to business resilience and revenue continuity.
Security isn’t about protection anymore. It’s about performance under pressure.
See you in the Loop.