"Where Are We On Cyber?" – A Qualitative Study On Boards’ Cybersecurity Risk Decision Making

Abstract

Boards are increasingly required to oversee the cybersecurity risks of their organizations. To make informed decisions, board members have to rely on the information given to them, which could come from their Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), the reports of executives, audits, and regula- tions. However, little is known about how boards decide after receiving such information and how their relationship with other stakeholders shapes those decisions. Here, we present the results of an in-depth interview study with n = 18 C-level managers, board members, CISOs, and C-level consultants of some of the largest UK-based companies. Our findings suggest that a power imbalance exists: board members will often not ask the right questions to executives and CISOs since they fear being exposed as IT novices. This ultimately makes boards highly dependent on those providing them with cybersecurity information, leading to losing their oversight function. Furthermore, cybersecurity risk is abstracted to budget decisions with no further involvement in cybersecurity strategies through boards. We discuss possible ways to strengthen boards’ oversight functions, such as releasing industry benchmarks through public cyber agencies or imple- menting support structures within the company - such as standing (cybersecurity) risk and audit committees.