Cyber security top business threat for 2016, says IRM

John Ludlow, from Leading In Risk and certified fellow of the IRM, said: “Cyber security isn’t going away anytime soon. Dynamic and rising threats, emerging data protection regulations and rising stakeholder expectations regarding the level of oversight applied to suppliers and partners, all contribute to the pressure to get cyber security right and the anger when things go wrong.

“This is not something that an IT team in one company can fix on its own. All functions across a business need to support a comprehensive policy, and trading partners need to align and work together.”

Risk consultant and IRM Board member, Keith Smith said 2016 will be a new phase in the war against cyber-crime.

Smith said: “The view has moved from ‘what tech do we need’ to a more mature perspective of ‘how do we fight this?’ which involves people and their behaviours.

“Risks high in the business agenda for 2016 will be linked to managing people to prevent loss of data and the consequential loss of reputation. This risk will stay on the agenda as there will be more high profile data leaks in 2016 as companies get hacked.”