Cybersecurity ranks second among corporate treasuries' top areas of concern for the next three years. That's according to nearly 400 treasury professionals surveyed in the Association for Financial Professionals' (AFP's) 2019 Risk Survey, sponsored by Marsh & McLennan.

This is hardly surprising. Cyberattacks are becoming more and more common, with criminals expected to steal around 33 billion records in 2023, up from 12 billion records in 2018, according to “Cybercrime & the Internet of Threats 2018” from Juniper Research. Meanwhile, bad actors are using an assortment of malicious tactics—including phishing, wire transfer fraud, and vendor-payment fraud—and corporate vulnerabilities (such as software that hasn't been properly updated, networks with security exposures, and unencrypted data) to access companies' capital and sensitive data. When these exploits are successful, the organization's reputation can be severely damaged, and it may lose the trust of customers or clients.