ACCA calls on FTSE 100 CFOs to get serious on cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is growing too dangerous and powerful to ignore and a head-in-the-sand attitude to this once nascent, now pervasive threat is no longer an option, according to a new study by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and Institute of Management Accountants (IMA).

From health records to credit cards, individual pieces of confidential data are fetching “up to $45 per unit” on the black market, the ACCA/IMA study noted.

With databases holding millions of records now commonplace, the consequences of a breach have become too serious to ignore for FTSE 100 companies, the professional organisations said. However, the joint ACCA/IMA report also noted that awareness levels among the finance community were rising fast.

It found that accountants and other finance professionals “clearly understand the importance of the issue”, with 85% of respondents to their survey saying management at their respective companies was concerned about cybercrime risks.

Faye Chua, head of business insights at ACCA, said much work remains to be done given the serious nature of the threat.

“Exploitation of the myriad weaknesses within cybersecurity is now being perpetrated by a rogues gallery of hostile nation states, digitally enabled terrorists, conniving competitors, organised crime syndicates, hacktivists and even the odd disgruntled employee,” Chua warned.