Directors Must Act Now On Cybersecurity

In a 2012 Corporate Board Member/FTI Consulting survey, 48 percent of public company directors and 55 percent of corporate general counsels rated data security as their number one concern. According to the Department of Homeland Security, 85 percent of U.S. critical infrastructure is privately owned and operated. As such, it is essential that corporate boards understand the government's efforts to manage cybersecurity threats and factor them into their own risk management plans.

Legislation and Executive Order

In early 2012, the Senate introduced legislation that applied mandatory cybersecurity standards to owners and operators of critical infrastructure. However, the bill failed in the face of strong opposition from key senators, privacy advocates, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. A revised version of the bill also failed.