Many boards still communicate sensitive internal governance messages via insecure communication channels. A recent report by Diligent Corporation found that 56 percent of directors utilize their personal email accounts for board communications, and that even C-level executives and governance professionals also use email for board communications. This is a serious risk that must be addressed.

It is crucial to convince board members with the necessity of secure communications. This requires educating them about the reasons their current practices leave them vulnerable to data breaches, and helping them understand the costs of those breaches in terms of lost operational time, cost of defending against a cyberattack, and concern about compliance violations.

Boards should be aware of the fact that they are particularly attractive targets for cyber criminals. The hackers target high-profile individuals like executives and directors of boards since they have access to sensitive information important to them. This makes them an ideal attack target for ransomware, which are when criminals threaten to release confidential information unless they receive a payment.

In order to prevent this, it’s important to consider implementing an organizational platform for governance that replaces email and text messaging with a more secure system of record, which uses encrypted data boardroomsolutions.org/best-secure-file-hosting-comparison-review/ delivery as well as a specifically designed mobile application. This eliminates the need to share confidential or private information through unsecure email or document systems that are managed by the IT departments of the company. It also provides an independent platform that will allow boards to remain in charge during times of crises.