Capital at Work: A National Investment Thesis for Cyber Resilience

By Nic Adams, CEO of 0rcus

Cybersecurity has evolved from a technical risk into a strategic business imperative. Driven by soaring financial losses, rising geopolitical threats, and growing attacks on critical services, cyber risk now directly threatens operational continuity and investor trust. With cybercrime costs expected to reach $10.5 trillion globally this year and the average breach topping $10 million in the U.S., protecting digital infrastructure demands coordinated leadership and sustained investment at the highest levels.¹ Today, resilience in the face of disruption is not just an IT concern, but a defining measure of a company’s value, reputation, and long-term competitiveness.

Given these high stakes, capital markets are uniquely positioned to drive systemic resilience. Unlike government agencies—which often face limited mandates, budgeting cycles, or slower response to emerging risks—large institutional investors have both the incentive and the capacity to finance reliability across the interconnected systems that keep the economy moving. When resources are strategically directed toward proactive controls, real-time continuity testing, and transparent, audit-ready evidence—rather than simply reaction and cleanup—the result is fewer blind spots and greater financial stability. Boards, lenders, and rating analysts increasingly demand proof standards they can underwrite without guesswork, making proactive investment in cyber resilience not only a governance priority, but a crucial condition for maintaining market confidence.

Operating leaders are already signaling this strategic shift. According to PwC’s 2026 Global Digital Trust Insights survey, 60% of nearly 3,900 leaders across 72 countries now rank cyber risk spending among their top three priorities—yet only 6% express confidence in their defenses across all key vulnerabilities. Budgets are often split between proactive and reactive measures, but only a quarter of organizations invest materially more in monitoring, testing, assessments, and controls. As skills constraints persist, leaders are turning to AI tools and specialized managed services to close capability gaps. In a world where volatility is the norm, readiness consistently outperforms mere response.

AI belongs in this readiness stack as a governed decision engine. Automation should be treated as a supervised analyst with clear guardrails: rigorously pre-test for data leakage and unintended consequences; place privileged actions behind human approvals for sensitive changes; maintain plain-language, tamper-evident logs; and run regular continuity drills. With this posture, AI transitions from reputational risk to an evidence-grade control plane that reliably strengthens trust in operational assurance.

Quantum timelines bring added urgency. Preparing for quantum-resistant cryptography impacts identity, key management, and the software supply chain, and demands multi-year planning. Long-lived data, regulatory retention needs, and cross-border dependencies mean early action is a balance-sheet issue. Portfolios that stage this transition credibly will preserve data integrity and reduce risk premiums from sudden, disruptive shifts.

The investable set for continuity is concrete and near-term. Compute and connectivity that deliver high assurance—reliable cloud regions, low-latency networks, dependable memory supply, and trusted hardware—earn premiums when throughput is consistent, provenance tracked, and live failover tests produce clear artifacts. Energy and grid capacity matter: firm power, long-duration storage, transmission upgrades, and on-site backup for hospitals, fab facilities, ports, and defense suppliers provide a competitive edge when controls are hardened and maintenance is rigorous. Advanced production in allied geographies for chips, precision components, specialty materials, and robotics scales fastest when supplier visibility is enforced, alternatives are ready, and restart playbooks cap downtime and support modernization. Finally, payments, identity, and cross-border data platforms hold share when settlement is predictable, reconciliation clean, and recovery processes documented. Managed capacity—outcome-based services and targeted training integrated in live operations—deserves investment when its impact is observable and verifiable.

Underwriting should be simple and comparable. A single quarterly continuity report can anchor diligence and pricing for boards, lenders, and buyers. This evidence should state the scope and objective, the timing and scenario of the latest continuity test, gaps found (with owners and due dates), retest results, one-day and three-day interruption costs, and direct links to supporting evidence like change logs, maintenance histories, access and payment approvals. When continuity reports are complete and current, friction drops and pricing reflects lower uncertainty.

The capital stack can reinforce this discipline. Pension funds, insurers, sovereign vehicles, and endowments can anchor co-investments and private credit through covenants tied to verified continuity. Banks can structure facilities with step-down pricing when continuity reports are up-to-date and step-ups if they lapse. Venture and growth equity can accelerate frontier capabilities from these pillars. Smart policy accelerates permits, harmonizes reporting, and de-risks pilots to attract private investment at scale.

The next step is practical and measurable. Select two critical processes, run operational continuity tests, publish evidence-based continuity reports, and tie commercial terms—pricing, renewals, or service level agreements (SLAs, which are formal contracts defining the expected performance standards and responsibilities between a service provider and customer)—to verified continuity. A cohort goal makes the benefit real: borrowers meeting these standards can achieve an average credit-spread reduction of at least 25 basis points, measured semiannually upon continuity report acceptance by lenders.

A fragmented world rewards resilient systems. Customers get continuous service, plants restart on schedule, payments clear, data remains trustworthy, and earnings stabilize. Confidence endures and investment persists. The Council on Global Competition and Innovation (CGCI) exists to help accelerate this transition by bringing together capital allocators, banks, and operators to standardize resilience evidence and channel investment into the technologies—like cybersecurity—that underpin national and economic security. As part of its broader mission supporting eight critical sectors from cyber and quantum to energy and advanced manufacturing, CGCI is uniquely positioned to drive adoption, build public-private partnerships, and strengthen the rules-based system that keeps markets open and secure. America’s advantage is execution at scale: put capital to work on the systems that matter under pressure—and let evidence win better terms, stronger partnerships, and durable returns.

¹ https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1280009/cost-cybercrime-worldwide

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The Buffer is the Strategy

Five months of war have driven the U.S. strategic petroleum reserve to a 43-year low—while China has spent the past decade building its energy buffer.

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Omer Rafiq

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Secretary General, NATO Parliamentary Assembly

Dr Benedetta Berti

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Gen. Samuel C. “Bo” Mahaney, USAF (Ret.), JD, MPA: Founding Director, Strategic Policy and Armed Forces R&D Institute at Missouri S&T; National Security Fellow, Harvard University.

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Andrew J. Grotto

Andrew J. Grotto

JD, MPA: William J. Perry International Security Fellow, Stanford University and Co-Director, Program on Geopolitics, Technology and Governance at the Stanford Cyber Policy Center.

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Dr. CHRISTOS A. MAKRIDIS

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Kevin McAleenan

CEO, BearBig.ai; Operating Partner, AE Industrial Partners; Former Acting Security, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

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Michael Montelongo

President and CEO of GRC Advisory Services, LLC

The Honorable Michael Montelongo is a seasoned board governance and audit committee financial expert with an extensive record of leadership across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. A former presidential appointee and Senate-confirmed senior official, he serves on the boards of Civeo Corporation (NYSE: CVEO), Monarca Authentic Snacks, and the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), where he is also a Board Leadership Fellow and faculty member.

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Lorraine Wilson

Senior Advisor, CGCI

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Philip Root

CTO, GRVTY
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Dame Fiona Murray

Associate Dean of Innovation, MIT
Chair, NATO Innovation Fund

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Dawn Meyerriecks

Corporate Board Member, Advisor, Speaker, Technologist
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Graham “Gray” Chynoweth

Founder, The Next Offset
Former Director of Global Activities, Office of Strategic Capital at the U.S. Department of War

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Graham, a New Hampshire native, is also deeply involved in civic and nonprofit work, having served as a Director or Advisor to organizations such as New Hampshire Public Radio, the St. Anselm College Ethics in Governance Program, and the Business School at Southern New Hampshire University.

He holds a B.A. in Political Science with High Distinction from the University of California, Berkeley; an M.A. in Public Policy from Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy; a J.D. from Duke University School of Law; and a Certificate in Transnational Law from Duke and the University of Geneva Faculty of Law.

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Jesús Mantas

Jesús Mantas

Former Global Managing Partner, IBM
Board Director, Biogen, IFF, and National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD)

Jesús Mantas is the former Global Managing Partner responsible for Business Transformation Services in IBM. Prior to this, he led IBM Business Consulting, IBM Global Process Services, and IBM GBS Latin America. Before IBM, he was a Partner in the High Technology practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, and worked at Procter & Gamble in Spain.

He serves as the Chair of Compensation and Management Development of the Board of Director of Biogen Inc.(NASDAQ: BIIB), as well as a Board Director of IFF (NYSE: IFF) and NACD. He was a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global AI Council and serves on the Boards of HITEC and NACME, non-profits focused on leadership development of diversity in technology. He is the emeritus chair of IBM’s Hispanic Diversity Council.

Jesús holds degrees in Telecommunications, Software Engineering, and Business Administration, was a professor at University of California, Irvine Graduate School of Management, and served as an officer in the Air Force of Spain.

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Glen Dodson

Glen Dodson

Job Title, Cyberistics

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David Ulevitch Portrait2

David Ulevitch

General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz

David Ulevitch is an entrepreneur and investor. As a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, he leads the firm’s American Dynamism practice, which focuses on investing in companies advancing American interests — including supporting builders in areas such as defense, national security, public safety, nuclear and aerospace. David sits on the boards of Alloy Automation, Anduril, AnyRoad, Charthop, Firstbase, Flock Safety, Orderful, Rewatch, Skydio, Superhuman, Supermove, Vitally, and WorkBoard. David has written extensively on the role of technology in advancing American interests, including how nuclear technology can untether our military, the future of public safety and how the U.S. can rewire the Pentagon for a new era. David was previously the founder and CEO of OpenDNS, a cloud-delivered security service that was acquired by Cisco in 2015 for $635 million. While at Cisco, David was Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco Security — a $2.4 billion annual revenue business with more than 5,000 team members — where he oversaw the company’s global cybersecurity strategy, product portfolio, and business. Prior to OpenDNS, David founded EveryDNS, an authoritative DNS service, and grew it into the world’s largest free DNS service. He sold it to Dyn (now Oracle) in 2010.

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John M. B. O'Connor

John M. B. O’Connor

Chairman and CEO, J.H. Whitney Investment Management

John M. B. O’Connor is CEO of J.H. Whitney Investment Management, LLC. Previously, Mr. O’Connor was Chairman of JP Morgan Alternative Asset Management. Mr. O’Connor is also CEO of Whitney Strategic Services and Whitney Data Services. Mr. O’Connor serves on the Board of Directors of numerous companies including Oceus Networks, LLC., Sequoia Holdings, Inc., and Boon Logic, Inc.

Mr. O’Connor is a Senior Fellow at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point where he lectures on the Economics of National Security. He served as a member of the U.S. Department of War Business Board from 2005 to 2021 and as a Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army for New York from 2014 to 2019. He is a recipient of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the Air Force Distinguished Public Service Award and the Department of the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award. Mr. O’Connor earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Tulane University and a Master’s in Business Administration degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Business.

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Sherif Nahas

Sherif Nahas

Director of Private Equity, Ford Foundation

Sherif works at The Ford Foundation, where he manages approximately $7 billion in private investments, including venture capital, private equity, real estate, and natural resources. He previously managed private investments for the University of Virginia endowment, and before that worked at BankBoston and Sand Hill Capital. Sherif started his career as an engineer and product strategist at The Ford Motor Company. He graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.S. and M.E in Aerospace Engineering, and received an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan.

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Byron Loflin

Byron Loflin

Global Head of Board Advisory & Nasdaq Center for Board Excellence, Nasdaq

Byron Loflin is the Global Head of Board Advisory at Nasdaq where he leads the governance team in driving board and governance effectiveness. Byron founded the Center for Board Excellence (CBE) in 2010 and was CEO until it was acquired by Nasdaq in 2019.

Prior to CBE, Byron was the CEO and president for two private companies between 1992-2009. Along with speaking on and teaching corporate governance effectiveness, Byron is a graduate of James Madison University (BA) and Harvard Business School (OPM) and several HBS Executive Education Certificates including Havard’s Board Effectiveness program.

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Gen. David Stilwell

General David Stilwell

Ret. General USAF; Fmr Assistant Secretary of State (Asia)

Brig Gen (Ret) David Stilwell is the Fox Fellow for Future Pacing Threats at the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Institute for Future Conflict. In this role, he educates cadets and faculty on the growing military threat presented by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), including its use of political and information warfare to undermine democracies. His teachings help prepare future officers for the challenges they will face immediately after commissioning. Stilwell most recently served as the Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of EastAsian and Pacific Affairs from 2019 to 2021. Before that, he served in the U.S.Air Force for 35 years. Stilwell enlisted as a Korean linguist in 1980, served as a fighter pilot and commander for 25 years, and was later the Defense Attaché in Beijing. He retired in 2015 as the Asia advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He speaks Korean, Chinese, and some Japanese.
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Adam Segal

Ira A. Lipman Chair in Emerging Technologies and National Security, and Director of the Digital and Cyberspace Policy program, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)

Adam Segal is the Ira A. Lipman chair in emerging technologies and national security and director of the Digital and Cyberspace Policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). An expert on security issues, technology development, and Chinese domestic and foreign policy, Segal was the project director for the CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force reports Confronting Reality in Cyberspace, Innovation and National Security, Defending an Open, Global, Secure, and Resilient Internet, and Chinese Military Power. His book The Hacked World Order: How Nations Fight, Trade, Maneuver, and Manipulate in the Digital Age (PublicAffairs, 2016) describes the increasingly contentious geopolitics of cyberspace. His work has appeared in the Financial Times, the New York Times, Foreign Policy, the Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Affairs, among others. From April 2023 to June 2024, Segal was a senior advisor in the State Department’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, where he led the development of the United States International Cyberspace and Digital Policy. Before coming to CFR, Segal was an arms control analyst for the China Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists. There, he wrote about missile defense, nuclear weapons, and Asian security issues. He has been a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for International Studies, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, and Tsinghua University in Beijing. He has taught at Vassar College and Columbia University. Segal is the author of Advantage: How American Innovation Can Overcome the Asian Challenge (W.W. Norton, 2011)
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Nazak Nikakhtar Portrait

The Honorable Nazak Nikakhtar

Partner and National Security Chair, Wiley Rein LLP
Former Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Commerce

The Honorable Nazak Nikakhtar brings over two decades of experience in international trade and national security to help clients succeed in the domestic and global marketplace. Through leadership roles in the U.S. government and private sector, Nazak has leveraged her valuable insights into the expansive range of U.S. and international laws, regulatory and policy processes, and federal agency resources to achieve clients’ business objectives. 

 

From 2018 to 2021, with unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate, Nazak served as the Department of Commerce’s Assistant Secretary for Industry & Analysis at the International Trade Administration (ITA). Nazak also served the duties of the Under Secretary for Industry and Security at Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). In these roles, Nazak was the agency’s primary liaison with U.S. industry and trade associations, and she shaped major initiatives to strengthen U.S. industry competitiveness, promote innovation, and accelerate economic and job growth.

 

As one of the key national security experts in the U.S. government, she developed and implemented innovative laws, regulations, and policies to safeguard strategically important technologies, strengthen the U.S. industrial base, and protect the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States. As the Department’s lead on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), she played a key role in shaping U.S. investment policy. As the head of the agency’s trade policy office, she advised the U.S. government on legal and economic issues impacting critical technologies, advanced manufacturing, financial services, e-commerce, data privacy, cybersecurity, critical minerals/rare earths, and energy competition. Finally, as the federal agency’s lead on supply chain assessments, Nazak spearheaded the United States’ first-ever whole-of-government initiative to evaluate and strengthen supply chains across all strategic sectors of the economy.

 

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R.P. Eddy

R.P. Eddy

CEO, Ergo

R.P. Eddy is the CEO of Ergo, a geopolitical and economic intelligence firm known for forecasting critical world events. Leaders of allied governments and the world’s most consequential global businesses rely on Ergo to navigate what the firm calls “The Fastest Year in History”—with each year faster still.

Previously, R.P. served as a Director at the White House National Security Council and as a senior U.S. and UN diplomat. He has represented the U.S. in peace negotiations, played a role in the (flawed) creation of the International Criminal Court, and led attempts to recover American hostages. He was an initial architect of the Global Fund, which has since been credited with saving over 50 million lives; the UN team was honored with a Nobel Peace Prize. Recognized by Foreign Policy magazine as one of “America’s most respected national security experts,” R.P. was also named a “Global Leader for Tomorrow” by the World Economic Forum.

R.P. co-authored the award-winning bestseller Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes (HarperCollins). His advocacy work spans leading counterterrorism programs for the NYPD and LAPD, promoting Western industrial competitiveness with DARPA, advocating for safe social media, and supporting the responsible development of AI. He has testified before Congress, spoken at the UN General Assembly and the Nobel Prize Summit, and is a member of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission.

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Christina Alfonso

Executive Director, CGCI

Christina Alfonso is a senior advisor to leaders across government and industry, specializing in national security, economic competitiveness, and emerging technology policy. As the Executive Director of the Council on Global Competition and Innovation (CGCI), she leads an initiative championed by the U.S. Department of War and private sector executives to advance resilient, market-driven security investments and foster strategic growth. As a Senior Advisor at DARPA, Christina prioritized developing public-private partnerships and advised on strategies to strengthen the U.S. defense innovation ecosystem.

Previously, as co-founder/CFO of Novata, a Microsoft and S&P-backed technology platform, Christina enhanced private market transparency through non-financial data reporting. As co-founder/CEO of Madeira Global (2012-2020), she pioneered values-based investment solutions for the private equity and credit sectors.

She is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School Senior Executives in National and International Security program. Christina holds an M.B.A. from ESADE Business School (Spain) and a B.S. in Finance and Economics from Fordham University. Christina is a trustee and treasurer of the RWJBH Monmouth Medical Center Foundation and has served on the advisory boards of the Milken Institute Young Leaders Circle, PathNorth, and the Women’s Society for the Economy and Society. She has extensive international experience, most recently in São Paulo, and is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.