The career path of a CIO is never more precarious than at the arrival of a new CEO, who sometimes supplants existing senior leaders. New CEOs these days are looking for an honest assessment of cybersecurity, says Rudy Puryear, global head of the IT practice at Bain & Company. Quantify how you are protecting the company's assets by, for example, citing results from audits or penetration testing, Mr. Puryear advised. "If you can't build some confidence that you are managing that risk, the other stuff pales by comparison," he said.