Chief Executives Face Rising Accountability for Cyber Lapses

Equifax's chief executive resigned from the company following its 2017 data breach, as did Target's chief executive in 2014. At Sony, the co-chair of the business stepped down from that role after embarrassing emails were publicly leaked by hackers, but she stayed on at the company. To be sure, the burden of responsibility for successful hacks still falls largely on chief information and security officers, rather than chief executives. But experts say the issue of cybersecurity is now front-and-center for the seniormost corporate ranks. "Almost every CEO we talk to, the words that come out of their mouth are, 'I lose sleep and our board loses sleep every night due to the fact that we could be compromised'," said Michael Piacente, co-founder and managing partner at Hitch Partners, a recruiting firm focused on cybersecurity professionals.