The Failure Of Corporate Governance Will Cost YOU, Your Board, Shareholders &
Customers Dearly
By Nick Ashton, Founder, CEO,
Tracometry Group of Companies.
As they say
in the law courts, “Ignorance is not an excuse to circumvent the law”!
So who is
charge? Is it the Board of Directors, the
shareholders or is it the CEO, CFO
and other management team members?
The CEO’s etc. are just the hired help and they can be
fired at will, but they do have the daily
running of the company to handle and have been trusted to do so.
Just like
the guy or girl who cleans the toilets, they have a job to do and importantly
they must do it well! If not, it stinks,
is unhealthy and the word spreads, as do the germs!
The power
of the office of the CEO is massive! It
also changes people to think they are above being human, talking to people outside
of their “click”. Some say they do not
have the time in the day to effectively look at understand all the information
that is directed at them.
They have a
Gate Keeper, who, in most case is a “pain
in the ass” and in their own mind have to stop those that call dead in
their tracks and get rid of them, no matter what they have to say.
WOW!
So who is
in charge of the information from the real world and not allowing it to get
through?
Let us get
right into Liability. As supposedly
the “buck stops” at the desk of the
CEO, he or she is last in line and liable for all the company does, doesn’t do
and fails to protect its customers/clients.
Let me put
it another way, Duty of Care. I believe
it is a simple way of saying the same thing and brings it into a realm that most
we hope understand.
For
instance, theft of data is occurring at an ever increasing rate and is more
important than you can ever think! The
Board Room should not be a room of them and us, but it is! The IT Department should be involved in that
room and management in the computer room.
Stop this building of Kingdoms!
Back in the
day, all the information was on paper and stored in filing cabinets, the cabinets
no one could find the key for when it was important to get the information. Now, it is on servers or supposed clouds and
not even really in the building. It is
sitting somewhere and is accessible by a key stroke and a monitor. Which is hackable by cyber-terrorists.
By the way,
it is not IF you going to get
hacked, it is WHEN!
Your IT Department
is not just some department that has special air-conditioning and a bunch of
geeky nerds, who speak a whole new language that you do not understand!
Your Trust
& Security Director is more important than you, as they should have
those keys to unlock the information, proactively continue this important work.
Sadly as they are always being reactionary, the important protection gets
pushed to the wayside. Yes doors are
left open and hackers get in!
In this
case it is a username and password.
Which are not secure by any means!
Most CEO’s do not understand the technology and the computer department gets
treated in very demeaning manner.
They should not!
Today, Hacking,
Phishing, Man in the Middle Brutal Attackers want what you have and
when they get inside the core of your company, the data, they then have access
to the lifeblood of the company, the client/customer.
If you do
not believe it, ask the CEO of Target and his former Trust & Security Director, did they
understand what was going on and how vulnerable they were? No, it is the after the fact, facts that sink
you. Ask the millions of customers how
they feel and if they trust Target or anyone who takes a debit/credit bank
card.
Target heard loud and clear with 46% drop
in profits in the 4th quarter!
I can
assure you, KEYTALK is not all mouth and just wanting to sell you something
and make you pay us a fee.
KEYTALK has the solution and is a solution
that has been protecting data in motion in all of Europe for over twenty
years. Now, the rest of the world can be
protected as well! Please ask us the
question of how we can protect you!
In respect
to Duty
of Care, our responsibility to others has always been a high priority
and logically you would think everybody would understand the need for this
important factor in our society.
Duty of Care requires everything reasonably
practicable to be done to protect the health and safety of others in the
workplace. This duty is placed on all employers, their employees and any others
who have an influence on hazards, security and day-to-day activities in a
workplace.
The latter
includes contractors and those who design, manufacture, import, supply or
install plant, equipment or materials used within a workplace.
Reasonable
practicable means that the requirements of the law vary with the degree of risk
in a particular activity or environment, which must be balanced against the
time, trouble and cost of taking, measures to control the risk. It allows the duty of care holder requiring change in technology and knowledge to
be incorporated but only as and when it is efficient to do so. The duty holder must show that it was not
reasonably practicable to do more than what was done or that they have taken
reasonable precautions and exercised due diligence.
Pretty straight
forward, you know about it and do nothing or ignore it, you are liable and will
pay! It does not have to be that way!
In terms of
Corporate Governance, it is said “Corporate governance refers to the set of
systems, principles and processes by which the said company is governed. They
provide the rules as to how the company can be directed or controlled such that
it can fulfill its goals and objectives in a manner that adds to the value of
the company and is also beneficial for all stakeholders in the long term.
Stakeholders in this case would include everyone ranging from the board of
directors, management, shareholders to customers, employees and society. The
management of the company hence assumes the role of a trustee for all the
others.”
I was once
told by a very successful account, that company is a dumb, deaf and mute innate
object and has to have humans guide it from A to B. There lies the problem!
In
researching the responsibility of all those involved in running a large or
small corporation, they are exactly the same in principle.
Corporate
governance or Duty of Care is based on principles such as conducting the
business with all integrity and fairness, being transparent with regard to all
transactions, making all the necessary disclosures and decisions, complying
with all the laws of the land, accountability and responsibility towards the
stakeholders and commitment to conducting business in a most ethical manner.
Corporate
governance is the need for those in control to be able to distinguish between
what are personal and corporate funds whilst managing a company.
Your
largest threat is the security of your information that is desperately wanted, at
no matter what cost by others, who will illegally steal it from you.
Doing nothing is foolish!
KEYTALK will STOP IT,
Just Ask!
WE are in the NOW and
KEEP YOU; in the KNOW…
Worldwide Call: +1 (317)
426.0110
Key Talk –
Man-In-The-Middle, Hacking & Phishing Solutions
Straight Talking Key
Talking… KEYTALK!
Galveston, Texas, Indianapolis, Indiana, London & North Wales, U.K., Netherlands, Lithuania, K.L. Malaysia
Tracometry Group
of Companies – Reg. Office. Dorrington Farm, Rye Hill Road, Harlow, Essex CM18
7jF
Copyright 2014
