Security Questions Your Company’s Board Members Will Ask

With the increased number of cyber attacks, companies are becoming more aware and focusing on their security programs. The board members of the company are having discussions with risk and security management leaders. It is highly unlikely that they will ask simple questions about cyber security rather they will be more specific in their probing.

Read more

Please share some basic details

Step 1/2
Are you buying the policy for?
Or Contact us on: 1800-309-0988
Get Updates on WhatsApp
By clicking on "" you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use, and also provide us a formal mandate to represent you to the insurer and communicate to you the grant of a cover.

Just a step away from the quotes
Step 2/2

Popular Cities

Are you buying Cyber Insurance policy for the first time?
Or Contact us on: 1800-309-0988
Get Updates on WhatsApp
By clicking on "" you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and also provide us a formal mandate to represent you to the insurer and communicate to you the grant of a cover.

Things Board Members Care About

Apart from individual growth in the company, the board cares about majorly three things.

  • Cost: Avoid any future costs along with decrement in operating expenses.
  • Revenue/ Mission: Enhancing non-revenue mission objectives.
  • Risks: Market, financial, innovation, regulatory compliance & security.

Here are some of those questions that board members would ask.

Question-Related to Incident

Questions: What went wrong? How did this happen? I thought you had this under your control, etc.

The board members ask these questions when they get to know about the cyber breach or while the chief information security officer is telling them about the incident. It seems relevant when board members ask these kind of questions specifically about securing the online data of the organization since a large portion of employees is working remotely.

Now, you can tell them about the severity of the incident and state the facts. Tell them what you know and what will you do to resolve the issue. Acknowledge the incident and tell them about the impact it would cause on the business and what are your plans.

However, the security leader will be responsible for the oversight of the risk and security but make sure to define the accountability at the board/executive level.

Question-Related to Trade-off

Question: Are you sure that we are 100% secure?

This kind of question usually come up from the board members who do not understand the security and its impact on the business. Since it is impossible to be totally protected, it will be your responsibility to identify the risk and tell them about the resources that will be used to manage the issue based on business appetite.

You can respond to these questions like “Considering the nature of the threat, it is not possible to get rid of all the sources of risk. I will implement controls to manage the issue. As the business grows, we will have to repeat the reevaluation to understand how much risk would be fine.”

Landscape Question

Questions: How bad it is? How are we performing compared to others?

The company’s board members go through articles, threat reports, blogs and regulatory pressure to learn about the risks. That is why they always ask about how other companies are doing compared to their company.

You can answer like “ I would not hypothesize on the what other company is doing without getting enough information but I’ll let you know as soon as I get enough information.” You can discuss the broader security responses such as recognizing similar weak spots and how are you doing compared to them.

Risk Related Question

Question: Are we aware of the risks that we can take?

The board members know that accepting risk is a choice and if they don’t then it is your responsibility to let them know about it. They would want to know the expected risks of the company are being controlled and you should tell them the tolerance of the company.

Tell the board members about the impact on business due to risk management decisions and make sure to have proper evidence to back it up. The next part would be crucial as the board members take their decisions after knowing the risk tolerance. Since any risk beyond tolerance needs treatment to bring it within the safe zone. Having said that, this does not require any changes in a short period so beware of overreacting.

Question-Related to Performance

Question: Question-related to expenditure. Whether the company is spending enough on resources or if the company is spending too much.

The board members ask these questions because they want to know if the Security & Risk Management Leaders are working properly and they want reassurance about the Return of investment and Metrics.

You can take the approach and use a balanced scorecard that is based on a traffic-light mechanism. Make sure to tell them about the performance of the organization against business aspirations. Also, explain the aspiration according to the business performance and not technology.

Use of Cyber Insurance

Everything is done online now a days and with the increase in the usage of the internet, the number of cyber threats have also increased. Since every company whether a startup or an established one, all of them are prone to cyber threats. This is why it is vital for organizations to protect their online data with cyber insurance policies because cyber threats are inevitable.

Conclusion

These were some of the security questions that board members ask and you can respond to them accordingly. Even though organizations use the best anti-malware available in the market but the hackers are also getting better and better every day.

Written By: PolicyBazaar - Updated: 06 May 2022

Cyber insurance news

Latest News
Reddit Hacked in a Targeted Phishing Attack

14 Feb 2023

On February 5, Reddit confirmed hackers tried to access their internal information and source code through a highly targeted phishing attack.
Read more
Christopher Slowe, CTO of Reddit, revealed the company was able to recognize sophisticated attacks targeting Reddit employees. He said that an unidentified attacker message sent 'plausible-sounding prompts’ that redirected the company's employees to an internet portal that impersonated to be Reddit. The hackers tried to steal employees' credentials & two-factor authentication keys. The hackers accessed some internal documents, source codes, dashboards, and business systems. However, Reddit recognized the security breach, cut off the access, and started an internal investigation. They also said there is no evidence of personal or non-public data breaches, publication, or online distribution. Furthermore, they are investigating & monitoring the situation to enhance their security system.
FM Nirmala Sitharaman announces Set up of 3 Artificial Intelligence Centres of Excellence

03 Feb 2023

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget FY 2023 on February 1, 2023. The Finance Minister announced the establishment of 3 artificial intelligence centres for excellence under
Read more
the initiative of “Make AI in India”. Set up of these AI centres will take place in top educational institutes. “Make AI work in India” is an initiative and a focus area of the Modi Government. Nirmala Sitharaman also said that the government will implement the national data governance policy.
Cyber Fraudster Target Customer under Disguise of Insurance Officer

09 Jan 2023

Cyber fraudsters are targeting customers under the disguise of not a bank official but an insurance company official. In one such event, a 67 year old citizen from Thottakattukara, Kochi, lost Rs 1 lakh.
Read more
He was approached by a woman name Radhika Jain who claimed to be from an insurance company. She promised the victim to make the financial settlement for the raised claim if he pays Rs 1 lakh to renew the policy. When the victim filed the complaint, Rural Cyber Police, Ernakulam, launched the investigation. The incident took place on October 29 and the fraudster claimed to be an ICICI Prudential Insurance official. The fraudster fooled the elderly person by telling them that his insurance policy has expired and the settlement cannot be made disbursement of the insurance amount. As per the Police officer, “The fraudster suggested the victim to pay Rs 1 Lakh to renew the insurance policy. If the policyholder pays the amount then he will be considered as Senior citizen and the disbursement will be done. In order to make it look genuine, the caller sent ICICI Prudential life insurance letterhead through Whatsapp.” “The fraudster promised the complainant that within 45 days the settlement of Rs 2.45 lakh will be done. The victim transferred the amount to the fraudster’s Canara bank account and once the payment was made the fraudster sent some fake documents. However, the promised settlement of Rs 2.45 lakh was not made even after 45 days.” A police officer said. After cross checking the details of transaction, the police found out that the accused was from Aligarh. Police is also probing as to how the accused got the information related to the insurance policy of the victim.
Sensitive Data of 6 Lakh Indians Stolen by Hackers and Sold at Rs. 490 each

09 Dec 2022

Out of 5 million people globally, 6 lakhs Indians have had their sensitive data stolen and sold on the bot market making India, the worst affected country.
Read more
The average cost of the digital identity of one person was Rs.490, revealed NordVPN, the world's largest VPN service provider. The stolen data include user logins, screenshots, digital fingerprints, cookies, and other sensitive information. All these data are sold in packets in the bot markets, which refer to places where hackers sell stolen data from victims' devices with bot malware. The study majorly looked into three-bot markets the Genesis market, 2Easy and the Russian Market. Out of 26.6 million stolen logins found on the bot markets, 7,20,000 were Google logins, 6,47,000 were Facebook and 6,54,000 were Microsoft logins. Moreover, 667 million cookies, 5,38,000 auto-fill forms, 81,000 digital fingerprints, multiple device screenshots, and webcam snapshots were also found by the researchers. The bot markets are distinct from other dark markets as bot markets are able to get huge amounts of information related to one person in one place. The hackers also guarantee that once the bot is sold, the data of the victim will be updated till their device is affected by that bot, stated Marijus Briedis, chief technology officer at NordVPN. Security researchers also said that not all bots come with a good purpose, many can be malicious as well. These bots operate in multiple fields like customer service, SEO and entertainment and are becoming increasingly common recently. Vidar, RedLine, Taurus, AZORult and Racoon are some of the most popular malware used to collect and steal information out of which RedLine is the most common, stated the report.
AIIMS Cyber Breach: Attackers Demand Rs 200 Crore in Crypto

06 Dec 2022

All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India reported a cyberattack on November 23, 2022. Later, the statement released by AIIMS said that e-hospital system
Read more
has gone down and it has affected the digital hospital services, e-billing, smart lab, appointment system and report generation. AIIMS currently manages around 2,500 beds. It is said that the data of around 2 to 3 Crore patients might have been compromised. After the incident, AIIMS shifted to manual operations to cater the patients. Also, All India Institute of Medical Sciences sought National Informatics Centre (NIC) and I-CERT to restore the digital services. The incident has been reported to Delhi Police whereas CBI and NIA have joined the investigation. AIIMS issued a new Standard operation procedure where the admission, discharge and transfer of patients will be done manually.  As per a source told Press Trust of India, “Hackers have demanded a ransom of Rs 200 Crore in crypto currency on November 28, 2022”. Later, Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations unit have registered the case under cyber terrorism and extortion on November 25.  Meanwhile, National Information Centre e-hospital database and application servers restored the data for e-hospital. Also, the team of NIC is cleaning and scanning infections from other e-hospital servers that are located at AIIMS hospital. These servers are required to deliver the service of the hospital. Also, four physical servers have been arranged to restore the e-hospital services and have been scanned and prepared for the applications and database. As per the source, “Sanitisation of AIIMS network is in progress. Antivirus has been installed on 1200 out of 5000 computers and 20 out of 50 servers have been scanned. This activity is going on 24*7”.

Cyber insurance articles

Recent Articles
Popular Articles
Cyber Insurance for Banking Finance and Insurance Industry

28 Feb 2023

Cyber insurance for the banking finance & insurance industry
Read more
Interconnected History between Cyber Insurance and Cybersecurity Policy

14 Feb 2023

Cyber insurance and cybersecurity policy are two important
Read more
The Imperative Need of Cyber Insurance for MSMEs

14 Feb 2023

In the age of digitalization, technology has become an essential
Read more
The Need for Cyber Insurance Policy in India

01 Feb 2023

Cyber attacks are becoming increasingly frequent in India and
Read more
Understanding Cyber Insurance in India

30 Jan 2023

Cyber insurance, also known as cyber risk insurance or cyber
Read more
Biggest Cyber Breaches in India
We live in the digital era. Now, almost everything is possible online as every other organization is going digital
Read more
8 Ways to Enhance Retail Store Security
Every shop owner must put in extra efforts to make their retail store as safe as possible. To create a secure
Read more
Impact of Cyber-Attacks On Insurance Industry
The cyber risks have increased after the outbreak of Covid-19. One of the main reasons behind the increment in
Read more
Role of Cybersecurity in the BFSI Sector in India
The Banking and Financial Services Industries (BFSI) sector has been one of the pioneers in adapting technological
Read more
Cyber Security for Retail: Threats & How To Avoid Them?
With the increased usage of the Internet, the number of cyberattacks has increased as well. Since retail shops
Read more