Two Thirds of Directors at US Companies Fear they’re Not Prepared for Cyber Attacks, Says Study

Two in three directors of US public companies fear their organisation is ill-prepared for a cyber attack, according to a study.

Called Cybersecurity in the Boardroom the study, which was jointly conducted by Veracode and NYSE Governance Services, canvassed the views of 200 directors of public companies in the US.

Damage to the company’s brand was considered to be the biggest threat, followed by the various costs incurred by a breach and the organisation surrendering its competitive advantage.

The average cost incurred as a result of data breaches has risen 23% since 2013 to $3.79m, according to IBM and Ponemon Institute’s 2015 study Cost of Data Breach Study: Global Analysis.

What may appear as a daunting upfront investment, could actually results in net savings of $12 to $13 per capita per breach in comparison to companies who take no proactive security measures, according to Marc van Zadelhoff, vice president of security at IBM.

Key questions that a company’s security officer should mull over, according to the study, includes how well the organisation’s security infrastructure is built to combat the threat of cyber attack in comparison to other organisations.

Having the potential to tarnish a company’s reputation corporations are now seeing cyber hacks as an existential threat. In 2013, for example, an attack on Target was estimated to have cost the US retailer $162m in 2013 and 2014 after 70 million debit and credit accounts were compromised. Target was ordered to pay $67m to Visa in damages caused to financial institutions as a result of the breach.

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