Board members are involved with some of the most valuable and sensitive corporate information that a lot of people would love to get their hands on.
Despite the importance of securing board level information, there are still many organisations who still don’t put the necessary focus on board communication security.
Why should we be worried?
Imagine that criminals broke into your headquarters and bugged the board’s offices for insider information and then think about what these rogues could do with that type of information – blackmail, insider trading and leaks to media might just be the beginning. Think Deutschland83 but happening today and now.
Many boards continue to use the paper-based board book that’s shipped all over the country, or the world, to various board members. Although email is essential for productivity and critical to every business- if it is not properly managed it can lead to a company’s downfall due to incidents such as infected devices spreading malware, embarrassing data or email leaks followed by hefty compliancy fines.
Email is easier to intercept than most people think, which means confidential information sent using unencrypted email is at risk of being captured by shady characters.
Security around the delivery of sensitive board materials should be a top priority but some companies do not have measures in place to safeguard their data and continue to send valuable and sensitive board material through email.
Why aren’t my emails safe?
When you receive an email, should you trust that the information hasn’t been intercepted and tampered with by a 3rd party. Should you even trust the fact that it comes from whom it claims to be from?
Did you know that email existed before the internet was even invented? Electronic messages were being sent to different computers over the wire long before the internet and the world wide web ever existed. Email paved the way for the internet as we know it today.
Email wasn’t designed with security as a priority, or really even a feature. They are based on sending messages peer to peer via servers unencrypted until they reach their destination. You may have a false sense of security when you connect to your email provider, but there is nothing stopping that email from intercepted on its way to your provider and password protected mailbox.
There are no central servers which control and monitor the delivery of email so whether you’re transmitting important documents such as confidential memos or even personal information, an organisation should consider alternative means for their board to communicate.
What are the secure methods for a board to communicate?
Not only are the tools for communication changing, but also are the business processes as a result of new technology such cloud and mobile. We have now also seen an increase in the amount of organisations using the cloud based devices to handle their cyber security.
These new evolving and adapting digital solutions are transforming businesses every day and driving them forward. If your business wants to continue to develop, you will be in an ongoing race to adapt and take advantage of new technology while they are still relevant and offering benefits to your business. Failure to do so could mean your business falls by the wayside.
A digital solution, called a board portal, for the delivery of board materials has been around for several years and has become one of the biggest trending pieces of technology. The adoption of this method of electronic delivery of board materials increased significantly when organisations started using tablet devices.
Good board portal software enables an organisation to communicate sensitive board material using the encrypted application and stores the data securely. The BoardPacks tool stores the data in a former nuclear bunker where our data centre is compliant with ISO 27001, the highest standard possible.
We invite independent security experts to regularly check the integrity of our infrastructure and all tablet apps to reassure us and our customers that we offer the best protection for their data.
If you require a more in depth overview of our security policy, including how BoardPacks complies with the Microsoft Active Directory, details of our regular penetration tests, two-factor authentication or would like to discuss how BoardPacks meets with your security needs, give us a call and we’ll answer your questions.
