Cybersecurity Is A Crucial Objective; Not All C-Level Execs Know That
It’s common knowledge that cyberattacks will escalate, so upper management has to develop an understanding of the threat landscape, the different types of attacks and what it all involves. Right now, the Trump administration is working on an executive order to clearly establish the duties of agency chief information officers.
“Despite multiple legislative mandates, agency chief information officers do not have adequate visibility into, or control over, their agencies’ IT spending, resulting in duplication, waste, and poor service delivery,” reads the executive order. “Enhancing the responsibilities and accountability of agency chief information officers will better position agencies to modernize their IT systems, save taxpayer dollars, reduce cybersecurity risks, and better serve the American people.”
A vulnerable framework is not only a security risk but also a major business liability. However, upcoming cyberattacks and network bugs are set to get even worse because, as a recent survey by Americas' SAP Users' Group has found, cybersecurity is still not a major concern or skill among C-level executives, especially the non-technical leaders.
“The frequency of cyberattacks is only likely to accelerate over the coming years, therefore it is vital that senior executives have a full understanding of the inherent risks and implications,” explains Cyrus Mewawalla, Head of Thematic Research at GlobalData. “The losers will be those companies whose boards do not take cybersecurity seriously, as they run a higher risk of being hacked.”
Unless managers prioritize cybersecurity with investment in clear areas of focus such as machine learning for active threat detection, data breaches could become a major disaster for customers, and for the organization whose reputation and business will be impacted. Even upper management can turn into a major security liability if they don’t understand the risks.
Read the rest of the article on Bitdefender Business Insights.