Cyber-attacks can cause devastating societal and organisational disruption leading to potential catastrophic financial,
operational and reputational damage.
The media is littered with organisations that have not managing their cyber risks appropriately and have not responded gracefully when those risks have occured.
I was the author of the very first Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) cyber course back in 2017. We had been asked to build a course for directors and officers based on a review of Australia's Cyber Security Strategy - 2016. The review found that we had left behind key decision makers in our community.
Since 2017 we have exposed thousands of Directors and Officers to key concepts of Cyber Governance and how they can use their existing skills to meet their fiduciary duties towards Cyber opportunities and threats.
I have worked with the AICD to update the course content every year as the cyber context and directors needs have changed, we moved it online when COVID-19 changed the way Director Education was delivered.
Key learnings from facilitating this course in public sessions, tailored in-board sessions and online formed the strategy and structures of the AICD and CSCRC Cyber Security Governance Principles. This document offers a framework for better practice, enhanced resilience, and proactive board oversight of Cyber.
"Cyber is one of may IT risks our organisations face. As a Director you already have risk oversight skills, we need to fine tune them for Cyber"
Jason Wilk -
AICD Cyber for Directors Course 2017
I developed my first Cyber Governance framework in 2004 for a large financial institution and since then I have worked with organisations in most industry verticals, sizes and industries to assist in the governance of Cyber.
Having owned and run multiple businesses of my own my guidance is not theoretical, it is pragmatic based on how I would deal with the issues as an owner and director of a business that has to find the balance between organisational performance and cyber conformance.