Abstract

In countries around the world, economic dependency and growth is increasingly reliant upon the modern digital systems that power and enable services, products, and markets. Implementing and protecting these digital systems requires competent and capable public and private sector leadership actively governing the opportunities and risks of the digital future. While a small assortment of private sector corporate governance policies and practices exist worldwide related to digital and cybersecurity oversight, the broad-based application of structured boardroom oversight of these issues is both underdeveloped and underapplied and significantly lags the reality of how these technologies are impacting companies and societies in the modern world. This monograph coalesces some of the scattered but representative guidelines, rules and practices that are in existence in digital and risk governance. It also documents some of the recent developments in observed practices and regulatory rulemaking to develop a framework for digital and cybersecurity governance to develop this area as a necessary component of effective corporate governance worldwide.

Digital and Cybersecurity Governance Around the World

Corporate governance policy and practice need to rapidly advance to reflect the reality of the benefits and risks impacting humanity as a result of digital technologies. Digital and Cybersecurity Governance Around the World establishes a baseline of the emerging issues and presents leading digital and cybersecurity governance practices to respond to these developments. By documenting and aligning the current fragmentary nature of digital and cyber risk practices and policies worldwide, this monograph brings clarity to this emerging area of corporate governance. It establishes a foundation that can be built upon by policymakers and boardrooms to govern their economies and businesses safely and securely into the digital future.

This monograph starts by analyzing some of the work being done to study and isolate the digital aspect of economies to illustrate what is at stake. Various existing boardroom practices and policies in digital and cyber risk oversight are then identified to bring some transparency to the work already being done to improve how corporate boards govern these issues. Select national codes and standards from a diverse group of countries are then highlighted together with emerging regulatory trends to illustrate the widely acknowledged nature of this problem from practitioners and regulators. This monograph contributes to a structured approach to understanding these issues and to creating a framework for more specific solutions that can be broadly implemented to advance digital and cyber risk governance.