Matt Townsend, Lindsey Rupp and Jeff Green, Bloomberg, May 6, 2014
Chief executive officers beware: Data breaches can now cost you your job.
Yesterday Target Corp.’s board ousted CEO Gregg Steinhafel in the wake of a hacker attack that compromised the personal data of millions of shoppers during the holiday season. Steinhafel’s main error was to move too slowly in shoring up the chain’s defenses even after being warned that point-of-sale terminals were vulnerable to cyber criminals.
His fall reverberated in corporate boardrooms everywhere. Since revelations that Target, luxury chain Neiman Marcus Group Ltd. and arts-and-crafts retailer Michaels Stores Inc. had all been hacked late last year, company directors have embarked on a crash course to understand the threat and how to combat it.
Davia Temin shares her thoughts on the risks to CEOs and the response necessary for these types of crises. […read more]