Many multinational companies—across all sectors—continue to underestimate the risks posed by cyber-crime, leaving themselves vulnerable to a security breach.

Even as cyber-attacks on corporate networks become epidemic, such risks have done little to illicit the type of alarm that senior leadership teams should be sounding, says Sean Joyce, former FBI deputy director and now principal of PwC’s U.S. Advisory Forensics Services practice.  “It’s a 21st Century risk that a lot of companies have not really come to grips with,” he says.

Jaclyn Jaeger is a freelance contributor to Compliance Week after working for the company for 15 years. She writes on a wide variety of topics, including ethics and compliance, risk management, legal,...