According to a new survey cyber security has become a far more important issue for non-executive directors, for the next 12-24 months, versus last year.
When asked to rate board awareness of cyber risks on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 1 being low awareness), 65% of Irish respondents rated it a 4 or a 5, compared to just under half (48%) of respondents across the EMEA region.
Similarly, 57% of Irish respondents said that their organisation currently had an action plan in place to deal with cyber security, compared with 46% of all respondents.
The figures came from the first edition of the Deloitte’s ‘EMEA 360 Boardroom survey: Agenda priorities across the region’.
Just 8% of Irish respondents, and 5% of all respondents, said they currently had nominated a board member to oversee cyber security. The remaining respondents viewed cyber security as a collective responsibility.
The Boardroom Survey, conducted by Deloitte, asked 271 directors, the vast majority of them non-executive, across 20 countries in the EMEA region for their opinions
Twenty-six non-executive directors in Ireland were included in the survey.
Questions covered several aspects of corporate governance: strategy & risk, innovation, cyber security, remuneration, talent & succession and board performance & evaluation.
The top issues identified specifically by Irish board members for the coming 12-24 months are strategy, cyber security and performance. Cybersecurity was identified as the sixth most important issue over the last 12 months.
Deloitte’s Head of Risk Advisory, Colm McDonnell commented, “The shift in areas of focus provides a good insight into the mind-set of Irish boards, and indeed of Irish companies. Strategy is now the top priority indicating the boards and companies are taking a hard look at the future direction of their businesses. It is likely to become even more of a focus as companies look at the impact of Brexit on their businesses.”
“Significantly more Irish directors highlighted strategy as the top issue facing them, compared with performance of the business (62% versus 42%). This suggests that the performance of businesses is not just stabilising, but improving also.” He added.
Source: www.businessworld.ie
