BDO's fifth annual survey of 145 public company directors conducted in July and August 2018 reveals these and other indicators of continuing stepped-up board focus on cybersecurity oversight:
- 72% of respondents reported increased board involvement with cybersecurity now compared to a year ago.
- 32% of directors report being briefed on cybersecurity at least quarterly; 54% are briefed at least annually. While the 9% reporting no briefings at all is on par with last year, this still represents a significant decline from the 29% who reported no briefings in 2014's survey.
- 75% of directors say their company has increased its investment in cybersecurity during the past 12 months.
- 73% of respondents indicated that their organizations require 3rd-party vendors to meet certain cyber risk requirements (up 30% from 2016).
- 79% of directors say their companies have an incident response plan in place - compared to 61% last year.
And here is how directors say their companies have responded to the SEC's updated guidance on cyber disclosure obligations & internal controls: