Learning in a COVID-19 World... Also Cyber Risk!

Well, we are a few months into this COVID-19 event and thankfully I've been keeping busy. Also, so far I have been lucky that none of my friends or relatives have fallen ill... I hope you and yours are staying well too.

Harvard Business School... "Virtually" There!

From previous updates, you will know I am working towards my Corporate Director Certificate at Harvard Business School. You can see me second from the left in the back row in a photo from when I was onsite in Boston last year for a module.

I was due to do another module this month but as you can guess, I can't go to Boston due to COVID-19 related travel restrictions. I had thought I would defer it for 6 months or a year, but then back in May, some of the faculty put on a virtual class event over Zoom. It focused on "Board Governance During the COVID-19 Crisis" and was surprisingly interactive and some of the participants were very senior industry leaders who took to time to share a lot of their insights.

So after that I thought it would be worth doing the next module online - I'll be honest a big part of attending HBS is networking, but I think after the May event, I'll be able to get that benefit from the course as well.

You Too Can Learn! PRMIA Virtual Cyber Event

My HBS module in July will be "Audit Committees in a New Era of Governance", which will include how to "Foster the right culture regarding compliance and risk" and "Develop better tools to manage cybersecurity and other risks". One of the faculty that I have gotten to know in the last year is Professor Suraj Srinivasan.

So I am very happy to say he will be joining a PRMIA Virtual Cyber Event on Monday July 13th. This will be the first of a series of Virtual Cyber Risk Events at PRMIA. We will look at a risk management definition of cyber risk and how the risk management professional can work with their colleagues in IT, management and on the board to manage this risk.

More relevant in 2020, we will look at whether there is an industry wide risk in the forced and rapid move to online business and remote access / working from home that came upon us with social distancing due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. So, join me, Cyber Expert Neil Curran and Harvard Business School Professor Suraj Srinivasan for this Virtual Cyber Risk Event. Click on this link to register for this virtual event: https://prmia.org/Shared_Content/Events/PRMIA_Event_Display.aspx?EventKey=8584

My Own Plans in this COVID-19 World...

So apart from the above, I am working away from home here in Cork, Ireland. I am lucky to have some regular clients that I have continued to work with remotely through the COVID-19 crisis and I have even picked up a little extra work.

Some of the items I have worked on of late have included performing a lot of the work including the Data Protection Impact Assessment around taking a financial services firm online using DocuSign or Loan Applications and Credit Agreements, performing remote Internal Vulnerability / Penetration Testing using a Raspberry Pi that I shopped to the client and attending some client board meetings remotely to discuss the top risks in their new online risk registers which I have been developing.

In the coming months I hope to:

• Finish my Book on Risk Based Supervision and try and get some more related work with Regulators / Central Banks - alas remote work for now;
• Get more clients for my online Governance, Risk and Compliance Solution (currently in Beta if you'd like to give it a go) and add a Apple and Android App;
• Use all that HBS Governance knowledge by getting some Non-Executive Director roles - I have also learned a lot from my time on the PRMIA board and I want to apply that elsewhere;
• Get some more clients here in the Cork, Ireland area if I cannot travel as much in the coming months due to COVID-19; and,
• Do more of that remote remote Internal Vulnerability / Penetration Testing using the Raspberry Pi... thus bringing us back to Cyber risk - register for that PRMIA cyber event! https://prmia.org/Shared_Content/Events/PRMIA_Event_Display.aspx?EventKey=8584

Anyway, I best post this... my daughter is pacing around my desk as she wants me to take her for a drive to Kinsale... anything anyone can do to help me with my plans above will as always be appreciated!