The question is no longer if your organization will face a major cyber crisis, but when. Here is why Treasury is the most exposed function and what to actually do about it.
The question is no longer if your organization will face a major cyber crisis, but when. After speaking with several global organizations, one thing is clear: Treasury is one of the most critical and most exposed functions. When a crisis hits, payroll doesn't go out, strategic suppliers don't get paid, debt obligations are missed. Within hours, the impact spreads beyond IT: employee trust erodes, supply chains fracture and financial credibility takes a hit that can take months to repair.
With this in mind, what should organizations actually do?
The natural instinct is to try to replicate everything. In practice, this approach is expensive and technically unrealistic. Even cloud-hosted tools offer no guarantee: when authentication systems go down, nothing is reachable.
A more effective strategy is built around the concept of the Minimum Vital Company (MVC): the smallest set of operations that must keep running to ensure the organization's survival. It starts with a simple question: what absolutely cannot stop?
For Treasury, the answer typically includes payroll, critical supplier payments, debt servicing, core cash management… These are the processes that, if interrupted, cause immediate and severe damage.
Define the handful of treasury operations that must function under any circumstances and design simplified versions that can run without your usual tools. Starting with a single critical process creates immediate risk reduction and builds momentum.
Payment files, banking coordinates, counterparty details… these need to be stored independently, updated regularly and accessible even when primary systems are unavailable.
Crisis procedures only work if they have been practiced. Regular simulations, even targeted ones, make the difference between freezing and acting when it matters.
Treasury resilience is not an IT project. It belongs at executive level, owned jointly by the CFO, the COO, and the CISO. This joint governance is essential to align business priorities, operational realities and technical feasibility, and to ensure the organization is genuinely prepared.
Learn more about how Astran helps organizations protect their critical Treasury and Financial operations.