Microsoft identifies boardroom cyber awareness as a top priority | Computer Weekly

"Given the recent spate of high-profile cyber breaches, such as the attack on Jaguar Land Rover that halted production and required a government bailout, Microsoft's 2025 Digital security report is urging IT departments to ensure cyber risk is managed at boardroom level. Microsoft recommended that IT leaders treat cyber security as a business risk on par with financial or legal challenges. "It is important that corporate boards and CEOs understand the security weaknesses of their organisation," it said in the report."

"The company urged IT leaders to track and report metrics such as multi-factor authentication coverage, patch latency, incident counts and incident response time to develop a comprehensive understanding of both the organisation's potential vulnerabilities and its preparedness in the event of a cyber security incident. Other recommendations include enforcing phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication across all accounts, including administrative accounts, and auditing the perimeter accesses granted to trusted partners."

IT departments should elevate cyber risk to boardroom priority and treat it as a business risk equivalent to financial or legal challenges. Leaders must monitor metrics such as multi-factor authentication coverage, patch latency, incident counts, and incident response time to evaluate vulnerabilities and readiness. Enforce phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication across all accounts, including administrative, and audit perimeter accesses granted to trusted partners. Threat actors are intensifying techniques while relying on opportunistic attacks that exploit known security gaps. Governments and public-sector organisations are most targeted due to legacy systems, constrained budgets, small IT teams, delayed updates, limited monitoring, and weak incident response capabilities.

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