Field kit · MIoD × Eagle Insurance · Cybersecurity Awareness Month23 October 2026 · MIoD Office

The attacker
now has AI.

Does your leadership?

AI has made attacks cheaper, faster and more convincing. Most organisations have secured their payments, so attackers now go after identity: they ask for the keys, not the money. This page gives directors and executives a simple standard to close that gap, and the one-page report a Board should require.

Get the slides and the Board report template
01The numbers

AI changed the economics of an attack.

Attacks are cheaper to launch and more expensive to clean up. And Mauritius is not watching from the sidelines.

1 in 4

malicious breaches were AI-enabled, up 56% in a year. Mostly deepfake impersonation and AI-written malware.

IBM, Cost of a Data Breach 2026
$6.0M

average cost of an AI-enabled breach, against a record global average of $4.99M.

IBM, Cost of a Data Breach 2026
6,073

cyber incidents recorded in Mauritius in 2025, including 913 cases of digital fraud and scams.

CERT-MU, 2025 data
02A real case

The phone call that cost £300 million.

Marks & Spencer, April 2025. Mature security, a large IT budget, an outsourced help desk.

01 · Research

Staff names and roles, gathered from public profiles

02 · The call

The help desk hears a convincing employee

03 · The reset

Credentials handed over. The attackers are inside.

04 · The impact

Online sales stopped for weeks. A profit hit of about £300M.

No firewall failed. A conversation did. AI now makes that voice perfect: a few minutes of a leader speaking in public is enough to clone it.

03The simple standard

Six controls that make preparedness real.

No new platform. Mostly decisions. Start with the first two: MFA alone blocks over 99% of unauthorised sign-ins, and a verified help desk closes the door from the case above.

01 · Identity

Passkeys everywhere

What good looks likeLeaders, administrators and remote access sign in with passkeys or security keys. Coverage is measured.
Red flagSMS codes for administrators, or “we have MFA” with no coverage figure.
02 · Help desk

No phone resets

What good looks likeA password or MFA reset needs a video identity check plus manager approval, or an in-person visit.
Red flagA reset granted because the caller “sounded right”, or exceptions for senior people.
03 · Recovery

Tested backups

What good looks likeAn offline, unalterable copy. A real restore of a critical system every quarter, with the time recorded.
Red flagBackups never restored, or reachable with the same admin credentials as production.
04 · AI

Approved AI only

What good looks likeA list of approved tools on enterprise accounts. No client data in public AI. Agents get minimum access and an owner.
Red flagNobody can list which AI tools are in use, or what they can reach.
05 · Crisis

One-page playbook

What good looks likeNamed decision-makers and deputies, ransom authority included. Rehearsed yearly by ExCo and Board together.
Red flagThe plan lives in IT only, or has never been rehearsed by the people who decide.
06 · Suppliers

Suppliers in scope

What good looks likeCritical providers are mapped and bound by contract to your identity rules and a breach-notice deadline.
Red flagAn outsourced help desk that is not bound by your own reset rules.
04Two roles, one response

ExCo owns it. The Board oversees it.

Cyber is an enterprise risk, not an IT line item. When either side hands its job to the IT department, nobody owns it.

ExCo · owns and runsBoard · oversees and challenges
AccountabilityA named executive owns cyber riskHolds management to account
Risk appetiteProposes it, funds the controlsApproves it, monitors exposure
AIGoverns tools, data and accessChecks that AI use is controlled
CrisisRuns the incident, makes the 2 a.m. callsDecides on disclosure and reputation
EvidenceTests, drills, metricsRequires proof, not policies

ExCo · before the end of January

  1. 1Passkeys for every leader and admin, no phone resets
  2. 2Write down crisis decision rights and deputies
  3. 3Audit which AI tools are in use and what they can access

Board · before the end of January

  1. 4Run one crisis simulation jointly with ExCo
  2. 5Make cyber a standing item on the risk committee agenda
  3. 6Require the one-page cyber report every quarter
DownloadFree

Get the slides and the Board cyber report template.

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  • The session slides (PDF)
  • The one-page quarterly Board cyber report template (PDF)
  • The six-control checklist, with what good looks like and the red flags

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05Sources

Sources

  1. IBM, Cost of a Data Breach Report 2026, press release, 29 July 2026. newsroom.ibm.com
  2. CERT-MU figures for 2025, as presented by the Minister of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation, June 2026. Reported by WeAreTechAfrica, via OSIRIS.
  3. Marks & Spencer public disclosures, 2025, and StrategicRisk, How a single phone call cost Marks and Spencer £300m.
  4. Microsoft, Digital Defense Report 2025, on MFA blocking over 99% of unauthorised sign-in attempts.