Preparing for the Inevitable: The Board’s Role in Cyber Resilience
Throughout this series, we covered why cybersecurity is a business issue, not just an IT problem, and we explored the major cyber risks facing businesses today. If you missed either, you can find them you can find it here and here.
Now, let’s focus on resilience, because no matter how much you invest in prevention, cyber-attacks are inevitable. The real question is, how well will your business survive one?
Lessons from Cyber Failures
CrowdStrike Update Failure (2024) – A Global IT Outage in a Matter of Hours
In July 2024, cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike released a routine software update for its Falcon platform. Within hours, businesses across the world had systems crashing. Airlines, hospitals, banks, and companies suffered major disruption, with flights grounded and customer service centres out of action.
While this wasn’t a cyber-attack, the impact was equivalent to a major cybersecurity breach. Businesses that had no backup systems in place or were overly reliant on a single security vendor found themselves unable to operate.
This incident exposed the hidden risk of security dependencies. Many organisations assumed that using a trusted security vendor guaranteed resilience, but in this case, relying on a single provider created a single point of failure. The disruption lasted for days, and for some businesses, recovery took weeks.
North Korean Remote Worker Incident (2024) – When Your Cyber Threat Is Already Inside
A U.S. company unknowingly hired an IT worker based in North Korea, believing they had employed a fully remote engineer from another region. For months, the worker had access to the company’s internal systems. After leaving the company, the worker used his administrator-level access to infiltrate the company’s network, stealing sensitive data and locking critical systems. He then demanded a six-figure ransom payment in cryptocurrency, threatening to leak the data online. This was not an external breach, it was an insider threat, enabled by poor vetting processes and a lack of access control measures. The company had no clear procedure for removing access after termination, and no internal monitoring flagged the unusual data movements before it was too late. This case highlights a critical risk many businesses overlook. Who has access to your most valuable systems? Cyber threats don’t always come from the outside, they can come from employees, contractors, or third-party vendors with too much access and too little oversight.
What These Failures Teach Us
Cybersecurity is not just about prevention, it is about business continuity. The CrowdStrike incident showed that over-reliance on a single provider without contingency plans can cause major disruptions. Businesses need integrated security strategies that provide efficiency without introducing a single point of failure. This means selecting solutions that offer both comprehensive coverage and the ability to integrate third-party tools for additional flexibility.
Third-party risks can be just as dangerous as direct attacks. The MOVEit breach and the North Korean worker incident highlight the dangers of supply chain vulnerabilities and unchecked access. Companies must regularly review who has access to critical systems and limit permissions to only what is necessary
Business resilience requires ongoing investment. Cyber threats continue to evolve, and response strategies must evolve at the same speed. Regular board-level cybersecurity simulations should be a priority to improve crisis decision-making and response times.
How Boards Can Build Resilience
Ensure a tested incident response plan exists. Every board should ask, who makes decisions in a crisis? Do employees know what to do if systems go down?
Adopt AI-driven threat detection. Cyber attackers are using AI, companies must do the same to stay ahead.
Invest in integrated security platforms that balance centralisation with adaptability. A fragmented security approach can leave businesses vulnerable, but an overly rigid, single-vendor model can also introduce risks. The key is to choose a security ecosystem that provides end-to-end protection while allowing for third-party integrations where needed.
The Cybersecurity Playbook for the Board
Over the last three weeks, we’ve covered:
Cybersecurity is a business issue, not just an IT problem. Boards must lead from the top.
Cyber risk is business risk. Attacks can halt operations, expose companies to fines, and destroy reputations.
Cyber resilience is key. It’s not about stopping every attack, it’s about recovering quickly when one happens.
The best time to prepare for a cyber-attack was yesterday. The next best time is today.
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