From awareness to action.

• Author: Kristie, James
• Position: Editorial

It seems as if every day one or two (or more) advisories come across my screen on board oversight of cyber risks. Just as I sit down to pen this note I download the latest newsletter of a good colleague and past author, IR expert Carl Hagberg, who headlines his lead story, "Cybersecurity Soars to the Top of Board Agendas" [The Shareholder Service Optimizer, Third Quarter 2014]. Webinars, roundtable discussions, and conferences abound on this topic.

Attention to cybersecurity is not misplaced. As PwC's recently released Investor Survey on Governance notes: "Risk remains a big topic of concern for investors, and they aren't happy with the information available to them about a number of risk topics. Most striking, almost 40% of investors don't think that boards really understand emerging risks that can affect the company."

For this edition, DIRECTORS & BOARDS turned to two well-placed cybersecurity authorities for their guidance on navigating the risky road ahead. John Chen, chairman and CEO of BlackBerry, has identified what he calls "the next major risk management challenge" (which is exactly how we titled his cover-story article, page 18). That risk is enterprise mobility. Mobile devices, which are transforming the business landscape, are seen as "the weakest link in an enterprise security framework," he writes. He offers counsel on how boards can move "from awareness to action" in dealing with this oversight challenge.

And right from a director's seat inside the boardroom comes Patricia Oelrich's reflec-dons on how the board of Pepco Holdings addresses its cybersecurity risk management duties. This includes doing a "tabletop exercise": "To demonstrate the complexities of incident response we walked through the events that would take place...