Ransomware strikes. The clock is ticking. There are checklists and options on the table, but no answers. AI provides reporting, monitoring, and patterns. What it doesn’t provide: the decision in an emergency. The moment when three departments are talking at once in the operations center, everyone is right, and yet no one makes a decision - that’s when the crisis spirals out of control. It’s not the tool’s fault. It’s the person whose expertise is certainly present in the room, but who, in a crisis, isn’t being consciously guided by anyone. 

25 years of CISO experience and over 1,000 days in escalated situations paint the same picture: maturity models and frameworks point to the organization, but it’s people who make the decisions first. And this is precisely where leadership ...