CEO Concern About Personal Data Privacy/ Security Risk Continues to Increase

DATA PRIVACY/SECURITY CONCERN FAR OUTWEIGHS ALL OTHERS
With 563 data breaches this year exposing more than 150 million personal records, it’s no wonder concern about the safety of personal data among CEOs is significantly higher than concern for other types of risk. Privacy/data security risk garnered a 6.81 on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the highest) in August of 2015, compared with 4.59 for liability threats, 4.53 for terrorism, 3.68 for physical damage and natural disasters and physical security/family security at 3.63 points.

Privacy/data security concern has steadily increased, from 6.5 points in September 2014 to its current level, a 4.4 percent increase. Meanwhile, concern over risk from terrorism and physical
damage/natural disasters dropped (9.5 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively), while concern about other personal risks remained relatively flat. These surveys were conducted by Chief Executive in partnership with PURE Insurance.

CYBERSECURITY RISKS INCREASE WHEN AWAY FROM THE OFFICE
As we become an increasingly wireless society, with the ability to work from home and from just about anywhere, CEOs spend more time using mobile devices, home computers, tablets and laptops while on the road. A third of August 2015 survey respondents report doing 20 percent or more of their weekly business on personal devices.

ARE CEOS TAKING ENOUGH PRECAUTIONS WITH THEIR PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY?
Just half of respondents were confident that their personal technologies had the same protective systems as their office technologies. Nearly 20 percent said definitely not, while another 25 percent had only partial protection related to their corporate safeguards. Mid-market CEOs were significantly less confident than their larger and small-business peers about the safety of their  home/ personal technology. At companies with revenues between $100 million and $1 billion, only 42.4 percent of CEOs rated their home and personal devices as secure as their office devices versus 56.3 percent for CEOs of companies with revenue over $1 billion.