Key Terms & Tools
A quick reference to the book’s decision frameworks, with a simple calculator for exploring disruption costs.
Key Terms & Frameworks Explained
A plain-language reference to the book’s distinctive operating terms, designed for leaders who want the concepts before the jargon.
1. The Decision Ledger
A durable record of important decisions, accepted risks, exceptions, owners, evidence, and review triggers so assumptions do not quietly become permanent risk.
2. The Trust Evidence Pack
An organized evidence base that helps the business answer serious questions from insurers, auditors, customers, and leadership before pressure arrives.
3. The 90-Day Readiness Sprint
A structured cycle for replacing vague confidence with visible readiness: see clearly, reduce avoidable risk, prove what matters, and establish the next review point.
4. The Continuity Trade-Off Card
A one-page record for critical processes where a security action could interrupt operations. It makes the protection-versus-continuity trade-off explicit before a crisis.
5. The Sensitive Action Rule
A verification rule for moments when trust becomes action, especially payments, credentials, sensitive data, privileged changes, or requests vulnerable to AI-enabled impersonation.
6. Boardroom Decision Brief
A compact format for showing material changes, evidence, decisions needed, ownership, and risks accepted or deferred without burying leaders in technical detail.
7. The Control Tower Principle
A leadership analogy: cybersecurity is not about grounding every flight. It is about maintaining visibility, coordination, evidence, priorities, and safe movement under changing conditions.
8. Assumption Expiration
A reminder that a decision can remain documented while the assumptions underneath it become obsolete. Important assumptions need explicit review triggers.
9. Failure Rehearsal
Practice for the moment a control, backup, vendor, identity process, or recovery plan does not behave as expected. Resilience requires evidence from tested failure, not confidence alone.
Disruption Cost Scenario Calculator
Explore the modeled cost of an interruption using your own assumptions. Compare it with a proposed control’s cost as a starting point for discussion.
1-Hour Impact
24-Hour Impact
168-Hour Impact
Formula: hourly disruption cost × hours × (1 + additional allowance ÷ 100). The allowance is your scenario assumption, not an industry benchmark. Totals assume continuous interruption for 1, 24, or 168 hours. These are scenario costs, not expected annual losses, predicted savings, or proof that a control will prevent an incident. Incident likelihood, control effectiveness, and recurring costs are not modeled. Inputs stay in this browser and are not saved.