Boardroom Insider

Boardroom Insider

Tools and Tips for Better Boards and Better Directors

Boardroom INSIDER for… MARCH

CORPORATE BOARDS ARE FAILING “BASIC DIGITAL HYGIENE” RULES

Company employees worldwide have gotten the word that they need to be smart in using email and text messaging tools for business.  Company IT staff takes a firm hand in monitoring digital safety to avoid hacks, data losses, compliance disasters and other 21st Century online woes.

But what about the corporation’s board of directors?  Not so much, says an article in the March issue of online monthly Boardroom INSIDERBI publisher and board consultant Ralph Ward writes that those at the very top of the corporate pyramid too often “act like the basics of email hygiene don’t apply to them.”

The BI list of director digital fumbles includes… using their own work or personal email addresses for board business.  Not only are these often less secure, but “sensitive board info makes a new home on outside servers,” — a nightmare in cases of litigation.  Legal tainting, when email and text messages are CCed, forwarded, or accessible to the wrong eyes.  Legal “privilege, or chain of evidence” validation is then lost, Ward notes.  Shaky platforms.  Delicate board info is sent to the director… who then receives it on an insecure smart phone, laptop or company computer server, and it’s shuffled across email accounts, or accessed on a public wi-fi.  Ward warns that board members “must be as tough on their own use of digital info as they are with their employees.”

  Also in Boardroom INSIDER for March…

Maybe “checklist” governance is actually a positive.
How can we prompt more board meeting discussion?
Q&A: Should we rotate our board committee talent?

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CONTACT: Tel 1+989-833-7615 or via email

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