Board of directors of most of the companies operating in the UK, especially those listed on FTSE is still not aware of the potential impact a cyber attack could fetch to their business. This was revealed in the report released by the Government’s Cyber Governance Health Check.
The report shows that only 16% of the board of directors have a clever understanding of the impact of loss or interruption associated to cyber threats while the rest are still unaware of the fact that a single attack can make or break a business. And the highlight of the research is that almost 96% of the companies have a cybersecurity strategy in place.
While only 12% of them have actually tested their plan, the rest of them are still aren’t sure what their in-house measures could yield when the success parameter is taken into account.
UK’s Digital Minister Margot James said that the threat of cyber attacks has always been looming on the UK where the world’s leading businesses are operating. And this is due to the fact that companies are treating cybersecurity as an add-on for their business.
Here awareness plays a vital role in educating those who aren’t aware of the cyber attack repercussions.
Cybersecurity experts say that the implementation of the GDPR from May 2018 has played a positive effect in increasing the attention of boards towards cyber threats. As 77% of those responding to cyber health check study said that their board and management have taken cyber security seriously after the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulations.
However, more such work is needed by businesses to improve their cyber resilience which can only be accessed based on the risk-based principles to allow firms to measure and benchmark the extent to which they are managing their cyber risk profile on an effective note.
Hopefully, all such indicators will provide the members of the corporate boards to understand where the action is needed and investment is required.
