Managers need to take cybersecurity seriously

No matter what your industry, cyber security needs to be top of mind for management teams. These days, with organised cyber criminals running mass-scale hacking operations and then selling information about institutional vulnerabilities, companies need to be proactive in their defence.

A worldwide survey of more than 900 executives conducted by Accenture Strategy found that more than two-thirds of respondents believe the likelihood of a cyberattack to be “very” or “extremely” high and a similar share sees a high likelihood of data or privacy breaches. With that in mind, it’s somewhat surprising that only 9 per cent run inward-directed attacks (penetration tests) to check their systems on a regular basis. It’s clear there is a significant disconnect between how aware organisations are of the cyber-threat and how prepared they are for such an attack.

Managers need to address this disconnect by making cyber security a top-down priority. From the board of directors and senior managers to junior analysts, your team needs to take cyber security seriously.

A 2015 study conducted by Accenture and Ponemon Institute found that firms that displayed leadership in cyber security shared certain characteristics, including immediate reporting of security incidents to the chief executive and board of directors, clear definition of security responsibilities and authority, and effective communication of security requirements to all employees. In short a company’s leadership team needs to address cyber security head on.