Dive Brief: - Cybersecurity has shifted from an information technology concern to one that increasingly carries financial risks falling within the scope of the modern CFO role, according to a new thought leadership piece from Microsoft. - CFOs are becoming more central to how organizations assess and manage cybersecurity risk as incidents increasingly translate into financial loss and operational disruption, the company said in its blog post, adding that recent advancements in artificial intelligence have only accelerated these trends. - “Cybersecurity may once have been managed quietly in the background, but today it is a visible financial leadership challenge shaped by regulation, AI acceleration, and rising expectations from boards and investors,” the post said. Dive Insight: U.S. cyberattacks hit a new peak in 2025, resulting in a record 3,322 data compromises, a 79% increase compared with 2020 levels, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit that tracks and reports on U.S. data breach and identity theft activity. Cybersecurity now ranks as the biggest external concern for finance leaders globally, surpassing economic conditions and geopolitical tensions, according to SAP Concur’s latest CFO Insights report. “Like a rogue wave, cyber threats have risen sharply to become the top external challenge facing finance leaders,” the report said. In a high-profile example, Jaguar Land Rover said in January that a cyber incident disclosed in early September continued to weigh on its sales, with wholesale volumes down 43% year-over-year to 59,200 units in the three months ended Dec. 31 versus the same period a year earlier, as reported by CFO Dive sister publication Cybersecurity Dive. “The cyber incident meant that we had to close down our systems in one of the higher volume months of the year,” JLR CFO Richard Molyneux said in a November earnings call. IBM reported last year that the