Board Oversight of Cybersecurity Risks

Last year President Obama issued an Executive Order to help address growing concerns about security breaches relating to confidential information and key computer systems, and the risks that such breaches pose for critical US infrastructure, including infrastructure controlled by a wide range of companies. In October 2013, as directed by the Executive Order, the US Department of Commerce, through its National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), issued for comment a set of voluntary standards and best practices intended to help reduce these cybersecurity risks. On February 12, 2014, the final Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity (Cybersecurity Framework) was released.