The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Growing Need for Cybersecurity in Modern Corporate America

Along with the rapid development of the Internet and other technologies comes the exponential onset of cyber attacks, threatening the economic and national security of every government. In today’s world, data is extremely valuable, which rings true for all levels of society: the government, corporations, and individuals. For corporations, the Internet and various forms of technology are almost always used to hold trade secrets, customer information, intellectual property, and other types of corporate data. This makes corporations an especially appetizing target for hackers who have a lot to gain by accessing this information. As new technologies are incorporated into companies, a slew of cybersecurity issues are adopted as well. Despite knowing this, American companies have been unable to avoid these cyber threats, and have lost trillions of dollars through hacks, in addition to the loss of many of their customer’s personal data.

In this paper, the regulatory framework of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is examined, as well as their ability to ensure that corporations have adequate cybersecurity measures to protect and be transparent with shareholders. Additionally, major problems in the SEC’s cybersecurity regulatory regime are identified and explored, and solutions are offered to solve inherent issues in security policies, namely a cultural corporate shift in the perception of cybersecurity. Since cyber crime will never fade, it is important to ensure that companies treat cyber threats as seriously as physical threats, since both can severely compromise the company and have negative effects on shareholders.