“Directors Target of New Cybersecurity Training” – Bloomberg BNA

December 8, 2016 – “No company is immune from cybersecurity threats, not even a chocolate maker.

Take it from the nation’s first Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, who now sits on the board of Hershey Co. He says every company is a digital company, including the Pa.-based manufacturer of Kisses and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Hershey—which uses information technology to manage manufacturing, sales and other business processes—regularly updates its directors on how digital assets and data are being protected.

“I think more and more companies are beginning to believe that they may sell a product, they may sell a service, they may sell both,” Ridge, who advised the president on national security from just after the Sept. 11 attacks until 2005, told Bloomberg BNA. “But it’s all based on a digital infrastructure that is more and more vulnerable every day.”

To help boards get a better handle on hacking risks, his consulting firm, Ridge Global LLC, is teaming up with the National Association of Corporate Directors and Carnegie Mellon University to offer a first-of-its-kind cybersecurity training program geared at directors. Starting in mid-January, directors will learn about their role and responsibilities in cybersecurity oversight.”

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