Yahoo Breach Shows that Boards May Be Their Own Worst Enemy

The breach is bad news for board members, and not just those consulting Verizon amid that company’s planned $4.8 billion acquisition of the once-popular Web portal. Despite the gravity and likelihood of cyber-attacks, new research suggests that directors still rely on free e-mail service providers (ESPs) for both personal and corporate communications. The warning comes from Diligent, a provider of secure communication and collaboration platforms for executives and board members (it serves 145,000 of the latter). With a survey of Fortune 1000 companies, it found that more than 30 percent of U.S. board members are using a free ESP to communicate. “This practice, especially in the wake of such a massive breach, rings a bell to executives and corporations to be on high alert and revisit security practices”.