Abstract

Corporations and SMEs are facing ‘new’ external and internal pressures, which frequently result in modifications to their corporate governance structures and accounting/reporting systems. Because of the digital transformation, the environment – be it real or virtual – in which these companies operate has experienced significant changes. Business operations are a key and important component of human development all over the world – not only financially – and their influence on societal and environmental conditions as well as their necessary preservation are essentially undeniable. However, these operations increasingly undergo cyber-attacks that dramatically represent true causes of disruptions and breakdowns, eluding international governments’ inspection and sophisticated corporate control systems. The concepts of governance, internal control and accountability are critical for the protection of sustainable business activities from cyber-attacks, and their effectiveness is arguably dependent on corporations’ ability to govern themselves well and demonstrate accountability to their many stakeholders (across their entire value chain) also in relation to cyber dynamics. This should be accomplished by implementing well-accepted governance system standards that are globally harmonized with ‘Environment, Social and Governance’ (ESG) reporting and performance measurement tools capable of strategically assessing and evaluating risk exposure and providing forward-looking information on a multiple level. Few studies have adequately explored these issues in this defining setting, and due to the contrasting evidence arising from the extant literature, there is still no undisputed identification of effective measurement, reporting and disclosure systems for cyber risk and crime anticipation and/or neutralization.

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