Operational Risk: Why Cybersecurity Accountability Belongs to the COO
The 2024 CrowdStrike outage did not just interrupt IT systems; it halted global commerce. Airlines, banks, and hospitals faced operational collapse, resulting in over $5 billion in losses. Delta Air Lines alone absorbed more than $500 million in costs from stranded passengers and canceled flights. The executives answering for these failures were not Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs). They were Chief Operating Officers (COOs).
This event crystallized a shift operations leaders have managed for years: cybersecurity is a business continuity issue. The COO now sits at the center of accountability.
Data supports this transition. IBM’s 2025 Cost of a Data Breach Report places the average US breach cost at $10.22 million, a global high. Yet CompTIA’s 2025 State of Cybersecurity report indicates 49% of organizations still silo security within IT. This framing leaves COOs exposed to risks they directly influence but do not control.
1. Downtime Is an Operational Failure, Not a Technical Glitch
The primary impact of a cyberattack is not data theft; it is service interruption. Ransomware encrypts critical workflows. Incident response protocols force pauses in customer-facing processes. In 2025, a single malware incident stemming from a misconfigured VPN cost a major enterprise an estimated $136 million per day in operational impact.
For COOs overseeing collections, delivery, or back-office processing, downtime violates SLAs and halts revenue recognition. Security strategy must prioritize operational resilience over abstract threat prevention. The goal is maintaining workflow integrity during an incident.
2. Human Error Reflects Process Design, Not Just User Behavior
People drive 88% of cybersecurity breaches, according to Stanford University research. Verizon’s 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report confirms that 68% of incidents involve a human element. These are not IT staff errors. They are mistakes made by contact center agents, back-office processors, and collections teams.
Generative AI has intensified this risk. McKinsey reports a 1,200% increase in phishing attacks since late 2022. Operational leaders design the workflows, access controls, and training cadences that determine exposure. If operations teams form the primary attack surface, COOs must co-own the defense.
Understanding the dual nature of these tools is critical. For context on how AI is creating new exposure vectors across business functions, Epicenter's analysis of how AI is transforming business operations outlines the productivity gains, and the governance responsibilities, that come with AI integration at scale.
3. Vendor Risk Is Direct Operational Liability
Third-party involvement in breaches doubled to 30% in 2025, per Verizon’s DBIR. This statistic directly impacts COOs managing outsourced services and partner ecosystems. When a vendor fails, the client organization bears the operational and reputational consequences.
In regulated sectors like financial services and healthcare, vendor data handling falls under strict scrutiny via HIPAA, FDCPA, and CCPA. The COO owns vendor performance agreements. Security compliance must be treated with the same rigor as cost and quality metrics. Ignoring third-party security posture creates unmanaged liability in the supply chain.
4. Customer Trust Erodes During Disruption
Hiscox’s 2024 Cyber Readiness Report found that 43% of businesses lost customers following a cyberattack. Attrition begins when service degrades, not when the press release drops. For organizations selling customer care or back-office services, the relationship is the product.
A security incident that disables contact centers or compromises interaction data damages the client experience immediately. This is a customer experience risk. Since CX ownership resides with operations, cybersecurity becomes a core COO mandate. Protecting trust requires maintaining service availability during threats.
5. Regulatory Penalties Target Operational Compliance
Regulatory fines target organizational failure, not just IT lapses. T-Mobile paid $31.5 million to settle FCC charges related to repeated data exposures. GDPR fines have surpassed €5.65 billion. The SEC now mandates material cybersecurity disclosure within four business days.
Operational responses—incident logging, notification timelines, and continuity documentation—fall under the COO’s purview. Intercontinental Exchange faced a $10 million fine in 2024 for inadequate breach reporting. Treating compliance as an IT documentation task ignores the operational execution required to meet legal standards.
6. AI Integration Expands the Attack Surface
Generative AI adoption outpaces security governance. The World Economic Forum’s 2025 Global Cybersecurity Outlook states that 66% of organizations expect AI to significantly impact cybersecurity within a year. Gartner predicts 17% of cyberattacks will use generative AI by 2027.
AI tools embedded in operational workflows create new data access points and integration risks. COOs deploy these tools to drive efficiency, often before security frameworks adapt. Securing these integrations is an operational decision.
Epicenter's discussion of business process automation — ROI, implementation, and risk addresses exactly this tension: the productivity case for automation is compelling, but the implementation decisions that follow have security and governance implications that live in the operations layer.
7. Business Continuity Requires Cyber Resilience
Cybint research shows 77% of organizations lack a formal incident response plan. Those that exist often treat cyber scenarios as edge cases. This is a strategic error. Cyber incidents are the leading cause of major operational disruption.
US data breaches reached 3,322 reported incidents in 2025, a 4% year-over-year increase. A continuity plan that excludes ransomware, supply chain compromise, or prolonged outages is incomplete. COOs must integrate cyber resilience into recovery time objectives and failover protocols. Operational continuity depends on anticipating security failures.
The COO’s Cybersecurity Checklist
Ownership does not require technical expertise. It requires embedding security into operational decision-making.
Vendor Oversight: Do contracts enforce security standards? Are partners audited for compliance, not just performance?
Workforce Training: Is security awareness a tracked operational process or a one-time onboarding item?
Incident Response: Does the operations team know its role in client notification and service continuity during a breach?
AI Governance: Are new automation tools assessed for security risks before deployment?
Continuity Planning: Do recovery plans include specific scenarios for ransomware and third-party failures?
These are operational questions. They demand operational leadership.
Operational Resilience Is the Standard
Organizations that integrate cybersecurity into their operational structure recover faster and retain client trust. The distinction between IT security and operational risk is artificial. Attacks target systems; disruptions impact business. Accountability belongs to the leadership team collectively.
If you are evaluating how operational design and technology governance connect in a delivery environment, explore how Epicenter approaches back-office operations and customer service and tech support with security-conscious, compliance-ready delivery built into the operating model.


















