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Eradicating Cyber-risk: CEO Expertise and Experience

September 15, 2015

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As companies rely more heavily on compiling, storing, utilizing, and disseminating large amounts of proprietary and private data, securing such information continues to pique the interest of invested parties. Customers, consumers and vendors entrust their information to firms and expect that it remain hidden from prying eyes. Large data breaches not only highlight the precarious nature of protecting private data, but reveal the ever-present dangers of housing large databases and importance of retaining employees equipped to face the challenges of the modern cybersecurity environment.

Given the need to adopt newer technologies in order to achieve strategic goals and bottom-line growth, firm management and director teams must continuously assess their cyber risk exposure. Cybersecurity has breached the corporate board room and demands consideration on the corporate governance agenda.

Directors and executives who identify cyber risks as a threat must do their best to eradicate potential dangers. Hiring a CEO with relevant technological expertise represents one avenue to navigate the cybersecurity due diligence roadmap. In a recent study of 477 companies, Equilar identified 37 CEOs with cybersecurity-related experience in their biography, or 7.8% of the sampled group. While hiring a chief executive armed with the proper tools and background represents only one method to deal with cyber-risk, trends in hiring practices will reveal in-part the market’s solution to eradicating data breaches.

For more information on Equilar’s research and data analysis, please contact Dan Marcec, Director of Content & Marketing Communications at dmarcec@equilar.com.