The costs of cyber crime

There seems to be an ever-increasing problem with our exposure to cyber crime. As directors, we need to ensure that the boards we sit on take this problem seriously because the costs are potentially catastrophic. In just one area alone, that of identity fraud in the UK, it is estimated that £10 billion of fraud is perpetrated against individuals every year. Not only are there financial impacts, such as the recent Tesco Bank customer losses and the potential for big regulatory fines (this could become an even bigger threat with the introduction of the GDPR), and the management and administrative costs of dealing with actual and potential attacks but also the reputational costs. It is probably the latter that could end up being the most costly of all; this issue definitely needs to be on the boardroom agenda!!