Companies Put Cybersecurity Experts On Boards

[...] they wanted someone with communication and leadership skills. The privately held firm’s latest board member is Suzanne Vautrinot, a retired Air Force major general who helped create the Department of Defense’s U.S. Cyber Command and led the Air Force’s IT and online battle group. Parsons, in Pasadena, is at the forefront of a fast-expanding trend in corporate governance: the elevation of cybersecurity experts to the boardroom, traditionally occupied by former CEOs and specialists in marketing and finance. In the past few months, AIG, BlackBerry, CMS Energy, General Motors and Wells Fargo have added a board member with computer-security knowledge. Boards are responsible for advising CEOs on setting goals and making plans to achieve them, and to question the challenges standing in the way. Not adequately addressing a cybersecurity risk could prove costly — in money, reputation, legal bills, lost time and lost customers. Just ask Target. Since hackers breached its payment systems two years ago, Target has spent $256 million cleaning up the mess, with insurance expected to cover about a third. Cyberthieves also steal sensitive corporate data, which could cause a company’s competitive advantage to slip and its reputation to wane. Just 11 percent of those queried this year at public companies reported a high-level understanding of cybersecurity, the National Association of Corporate Directors said. “There’s some liability in not taking every measure you can to protect your clients, to protect your revenue stream,” said Gary Matus, managing director at executive recruiting agency RSR Partners. In the boardroom, she cuts through jargon, explaining opportunities to protect the technological backbone of railroads, toll roads and the like. John Pironti, a risk and security adviser for an IT professionals group, is urging his members to ask for more responsibilities during this “big hump of sensitivity,” so they’ll be primed for larger advisory roles in the future — including on boards of directors.