What You Need to Know:
Every day, organizations around the world are victims of data breaches, denial of service (DoS) attacks, and even malware or botnet assaults. How prepared is your organization for a cyberattack? Do you feel confident that your company has the right network security measures in place to protect it from a potential intrusion or disruption?
Recent findings from Harvard researchers indicate that you probably shouldn’t be too confident in your company’s ability to manage cybersecurity threats.
After surveying more than 5,000 individuals from over 60 countries actively serving on a corporate board of directors—for both private and public companies of all sizes, in a variety of industries like IT, telecom, materials, industrials, and health care—the researchers observed some troubling themes related to cybersecurity.
According to the research, “Directors acknowledge cybersecurity as an urgent global issue, but are failing to make the connection between the pervasiveness of cyber threats and their companies’ vulnerabilities.”
The Directors were asked to consider six organizational risks: regulatory, reputational, enterprise, supply chain, activist investors, and cybersecurity. Then, they were asked about their level of concern regarding those risks; cybersecurity ranked third, just behind regulatory and reputational. However, when ranking their level of readiness in relation to those risks, cybersecurity was second to last (#5), ranked only higher to an organization’s preparedness around takeovers and mergers (#6). Finally, only 8% of Directors said they view cybersecurity as one of the company’s three main challenges in achieving strategic objectives.
“These findings confirm that Directors simply aren’t internalizing the extensive, long-term damage an attack could inflict on their organizations,” the researchers concluded.
The study revealed that there appear to be to two primary reasons that Board Directors aren’t making the connection between level of concern and readiness: inadequate processes and lack of expertise. The Board Directors cited having too much responsibility to oversee things they don’t understand—like types of cyber threats.
A Costly Intrusion: A Breach of Your Employees’ Sensitive Information
Is your company among the many that have not prioritized cybersecurity? No matter the size of your company, cyber threats and data breaches can be costly. In fact, according to
A Progressive Employee Benefit: Identity Theft Protection
There’s no better time than today to recognize any shortcomings in your processes or areas where expertise may be lacking within your organization. Take the critical steps to fill those holes, address any points of weakness, and lock down the sensitive information that’s contained within your company’s four walls.
Consider also taking control with offering your employees identity theft protection, a low-cost benefit with high value to your staff. Your employees will rest easy knowing that in the event a breach does occur—whether it happens in your company, or any other organization your employees are connected to—they will be protected.
Ready to learn more about how to protect your employees from identity theft? Contact IdentityForce to discover how our employee identity theft protection benefit works.
