A recent Goldsmiths report shows that 90 percent of corporate executives are incapable of reading a cybersecurity report. This is a startling number considering the growing dangers of the cyber world, as well as the fact that no business is immune to cyber-attacks; cyber defense starts from the top. Even more concerning, 40 percent of executives feel they bear no responsibility should their company be hacked. “I think the most shocking statistic was really the fact that the individuals at the top of an organization — executives like CEOs and CIOs, and even board members — didn’t feel personally responsible for cybersecurity or protecting the customer data,” lamented Tanium CSO Dave Damato on Friday. Damato feels that many top executives “place their heads in the sand” and pass the duty off to other members of staff.
The increasing number and severity of cyber-attacks and the need for executives to be educated on the matter is self-evident. The survey was conducted with executives from many major countries, including the U.S., UK, Germany, Japan and many Nordic countries, proving that lack of cybersecurity knowledge is an issue on an international level.