Effective communication between board members is crucial to ensure that directors are well-informed, engaged and able to make informed decisions about the success of a business. However, boards face the dilemma of balancing their need to communicate effectively while protecting sensitive information and preventing cyberattacks.

Boards need to use secure collaboration tools, such as board portals as well as real-time messaging platforms to ensure that discussions documents, meetings and other sensitive data private. This is becoming increasingly important as more companies are affected by breaches and hacks and regulators have introduced new security standards.

Security experts from the field say it’s not an issue of “if” rather “when” an organization could suffer a data security breach. A successful cybersecurity plan includes a good board relationship with the chief information security officer (CISO). CISOs should take advantage of every opportunity to communicate their vision and strategy to the board and gain the board’s support for more effective responses to cyberattacks.

Many board members and experts in governance rely on their personal email accounts to send out internal communications, especially during virtual meetings. This practice puts organizations at threat of phishing attacks and other cyberattacks targeting high-profile individuals like directors, C-level executives and other high-ranking management personnel.

It is critical to provide training to your board members on the importance of cybersecurity best practices. This boardroomsolutions.org/how-to-remove-malware-from-android/ should include a review of the information they share via insecure channels such as meeting notes or informal communication. It is also important to use secure document sharing platforms that offers encryption as well as access controls in order to stop documents from being copied or downloaded from other sources.