In April, the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) announced its partnership with the CSIRO’s innovation group Data61 to commit to lift the digital and cyber literacy of boards and directors across Australia.

As part of this commitment, the AICD is holding a series of events for executives and directors on cybersecurity. This month in NSW, a group of business owners and organisational leaders came together to discuss, ‘Is your organisation cyber resilient?’

Institute fellow Dr Katherine Woodthorpe led a panel of industry experts, including ASIC’s Oliver Harvey, Arno Brok, CEO of the Australian Information Security Association (AISA), and Alex Woerndle, non-executive director of AISA and cyberattack victim turned “cyberattack evangelist”.

"Don't just rely on the IT department for cyber resilience."

The panellists outlined some of the key things boards and senior executives should consider, including:

regular reviews of governance processes and cyber policies and procedures;
relying not wholly upon the IT department, rather developing an overall risk management strategy with the board, executive and the IT department in alignment;
taking steps towards improving their technological literacy;
read ASIC’s 2016 Cyber Resilience Assessment Report for a set of questions for to consider when evaluating cyber resilience within their organisations;
catalogue the data the organisation possesses and ensuring the critical assets, or “crown jewels”, get preferential treatment; and
having a clear plan in place should data assets be compromised, for instance consideration of the consequences of extended outages and emergency response options.

The next AICD director briefing will be held in Adelaide on 19 July. On 28 June IBM announced the establishment of the IBM National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) in Canberra. The NCSC aims to foster greater collaboration with government and business aligned to Australia’s new national Cyber Security Strategy. IBM has appointed Kevin Zuccato, one of Australia’s most experienced cyber security experts to lead the NCSC, where he will oversee a team of cyber security specialists. The team will work within Australia’s cyber security eco-system to ensure a strategic and proactive approach to cyber resilience.