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\nCourtesy of Veracode.<\/p>\n
Point fingers all you like when a corporate hack goes down. But when push comes to shove, who does the top brass hold responsible?<\/p>\n
Boardrooms are increasingly assigning fault to chief executive officers, according to a survey of 200 corporate directors conducted by the New York Stock Exchange ICE 0.14% in partnership with the Burlington, Mass.-based security company Veracode. In fact, more than 2-in-5 respondents said that CEOs should face the brunt of breach-related backlash.<\/p>\n
In terms of accountability, the directors point their fingers like so: First at the CEO, then at the chief information officer, next at the full C-Suite, and fourthly at the chief information security officer, whose job is to keep a company\u2019s data and technology protected.<\/p>\n
In a show of solidarity, the directors place the blame lastly upon themselves, the board members. Just above the category \u201cOther.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nCourtesy of Veracode.<\/p>\n
That the directors\u2019 are holding entire executive teams accountable ahead of security officers may reflect their acknowledgment that maintaining defenses costs time and money, and that higher-ups tend to hold the purse strings and set the priorities within organizations. Indeed, security officers can easily be hamstrung if they don\u2019t receive the resources they need…<\/p>\n