| | DECEMBER - 202219CXO INSIGHTSBy Kevin R. Powers, J.D, Founder and Director, M.S. in Cybersecurity Policy & Governance Programs, Boston College Assistant Professor of the Practice, Boston College Law School and Dr. Caroline McGroary, FCA, Fulbright Scholar, Boston College Assistant Professor of Accounting, Dublin City University CYBERSECURITY BUSINESS EDUCATION: IT'S TIME FOR ACADEMIA TO TAKE THE LEADEach day we are faced with media reports about large scale cyber-attacks and the devastating impact such attacks have on various stakeholders ranging from governments to individual citizens. Cyber-crime has also seen unprecedented growth as a result of the pandemic. This growth is both in scale and sophistication and has at times been referred to as our next pandemic. It is for this reason that cybersecurity has become one of the most significant risk assessment and management challenges facing senior executives and Boards of Directors for all industries and every type of organization, both large and small, public and private. Despite the widespread understanding of these cyber-threats, whether from cyber-criminals, hacktivists, Nation States, or insiders (e.g., negligent or malicious employees), and the need to be better protected, many organizations continue to suffer cybersecurity and data breaches. Consequently, an important role is attributed to education and training in ensuring that organizations and individuals understand the risks they face and their responsibilities when navigating the cybersecurity landscape. To that end, we are at the dawn of an era when education, risk assessment, security and data protection go hand in hand, and become regularized and professionalized. It is for this reason that cybersecurity must then be seen less as the realm of IT, and instead, the responsibility of everyone in the organization, with academia, while collaborating with governments and private industry, taking the lead in educating and training today's business professionals. Today's cyber-threats not only impact an organization's business operations, intellectual property, customers' sensitive personal data, and supply chain, but also threaten its very existence. Indeed, statistics report that more than 80 per cent of U.S. companies have been successfully hacked in the last year. Although executive leaders commonly report that, while they understand that cyber-risk is one of the top business risks facing their organization and are encouraged to see it receiving more attention in the Boardroom, they find that, given the complexity of the concept, they lack the Dr. Caroline McGroary
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