An Approach to Cybersecurity Risk Oversight for Corporate Directors
*This article first appeared in In-House Defense Quarterly on April 3, 2018
The growing volume and severity of cyber-attacks directed against public companies has caught the attention of federal regulators and investors. Recent guidance from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on disclosure and enforcement actions by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) make clear that cybersecurity is no longer a niche topic, but a concern significant enough to warrant the oversight of corporate boards of directors. A high-profile cyber incident may cause substantial financial and reputational losses to an organization, including the disruption of corporate business processes, destruction or theft of critical data assets, loss of goodwill, and shareholder and consumer litigation. More and more, directors are viewing cyber-risk under the broader umbrella of corporate strategy and searching for ways to help mitigate that risk. Increasingly, thought leaders, professional organizations, and government agencies are beginning to provide answers. (more…)
NIST’s Digital Identity Guidelines Favor the User
With the continued rise of data breaches rooted in a compromise of user credentials, interest has continued to build in more secure form of digital identities for authentication. Supporting controls for federal agencies as well as innovation in the market, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) published its four-volume Digital Identity Guidelines earlier this year on June 22, 2017. The Guidelines encourage online service providers (“OSPs”) to adopt design practices that promise to reduce unnecessary user frustration with password and identity verification systems, while at the same time increasing security. The primary purpose of the Guidelines is to promulgate technical requirements for federal agencies, businesses, however, could use the Guidelines as a baseline for their own cybersecurity systems—both to establish credibility and enhance the user experience. (more…)