This archive report was first published on 7 January 2020.
As we begin the new year, it is essential for corporate boards and CEOs to reassess their trust in ICT departments. Over the last two decades, ICT departments have evolved from obscure sections within the finance department into full-fledged corporate divisions with significant strategic influence.
Unfortunately, many organizations have placed their trust in ICT departments, leading to a series of scandals. Most fraudulent activities are now executed through ICTs, often with the help of insiders within the ICT departments.
The lack of oversight in ICT departments has created an environment conducive to various schemes and scandals. To address this issue, corporate boards and their CEOs must institute and rely on ICT governance systems.
As we automate faster than we can manage related risks, ICT governance should be a priority in our resolutions. Most enterprises are jumping into new technologies without building oversight systems around these innovations, leaving ICT departments to their own devices in terms of determining what systems need to be protected, how, when, and under what budgets.
For instance, in the financial discipline, oversight structures have been around for centuries and are now coded into our legal landscape. However, there has been no such legal requirement to do ICT audits, leading many enterprises to consider them an extra cost that can be avoided.
While avoiding the costs of ICT audits may seem appealing, it can lead to much higher costs in terms of stolen funds, damaged reputations, and misguided or failed ICT projects. The new Data Protection Act addresses part of the problem by demanding ICT audits, but corporates must go beyond privacy requirements and institute processes and structures that compel the ICT department to do broad quarterly reporting to the boards.
By doing so, boards can ensure that they are not reaping the losses that ICT scandals have visited upon organizations in both the public and private sectors. One way to get boards interested in overseeing ICT operations is to ensure that at least one board member has above-average knowledge in ICT-related matters.
Unfortunately, if our boards continue to be dominated by over-seventy year old retired politicians and civil servants, our organizations will continue bleeding rather than benefiting from ICTs.
