Board directors and getting serious about cyber - are we walking the walk?

Australian organisations have seen is fair share of significant data breaches and cyber-attacks. From Canva, Optus, Medibank and Latitude to Australian National University and Eastern Health. From past experiences the responses from the executive team and board of directors in the face of these cyber crisis has been somewhat underwhelming leading to significant reputational and social media backlash.

The Australian Institute of Company Directors has recognised the growing need for directors and executive leaders to integrate cyber governance into regular oversight and risk-management practices. A cyber-attack can quickly impact the financial, operational and regulatory risks of a business and boards need more timely information about their cyber readiness.

Have these organisations still learnt from these breaches and investing time in getting the right individual(s) with cyber security experience into their board composition? Or is cyber security readiness still treated as an “emerging” threat at a Board level and still not taken seriously.