We have all read a few corporate blogs. Some of them are pretty boring. Desperate to please everybody, they end up pleasing nobody, because they play safe and say little. So credit goes to Augie K. Fabela II, Vimpelcom co-founder and former Chairman, for a blog on cybersecurity that pulls no punches. Short and sweet, it lists five questions that board members should ask about cybersecurity. As the overall theme of Fabela’s piece is sharing and co-operation, I have stolen shared his questions below.
From my experience as Board Director and Chairman of the Board at VimpelCom, we need to ask the right questions to ensure the prevention of cyber crises:
- What systems do we have in place to guard against cyber-attacks?
- What teams do we have in place to ensure rapid response programs can be implemented to limit cybercrime?
- What processes do we have in place in the event of a crisis? Do you know what they are?
- What notification and decision-making escalation systems do we have in place that cross management levels and geographies?
- How closely are we working with our partners’ cross-company and cross-interest to ensure we are having the right conversations about what needs to be in place to identify, manage and counter cyber-attacks?
Fabela goes on to talk about sharing risks and responsibilities when managing cybersecurity, and he gives some examples where Vimpelcom excelled in responding to external attacks. The complete post is worth reading; you will find it here.