Ford Motor (F) Risk Factors

While no organization can eliminate cybersecurity risk entirely, we devote significant resources to our security program that we believe is reasonably designed to mitigate our cybersecurity and information technology risk. Our efforts focus on protecting and enhancing the security of our information systems, software, networks, and other assets. These efforts are designed to protect against, and mitigate the effects of, among other things, cybersecurity incidents where unauthorized parties attempt to access confidential, sensitive, or personal information; potentially hold such information for ransom; destroy data; disrupt or degrade service or our operations; sabotage systems; or otherwise cause harm to the Company, our customers, suppliers, or dealers, or other key stakeholders. We employ capabilities, processes, and other security measures we believe are designed to reduce and mitigate these risks, and have requirements for our suppliers to do the same. Despite having thorough due diligence, onboarding, and cybersecurity assessment processes in place for our suppliers, the responsibility ultimately rests with our suppliers to establish and uphold their respective cybersecurity programs. Our ability to monitor the cybersecurity practices of our suppliers is limited and there can be no assurance that we can prevent or mitigate the risk of any compromise or failure in the information systems, software, networks, and other assets owned or controlled by our suppliers. When we become aware that a supplier's cybersecurity has been compromised, we attempt to mitigate the risk to the Company, including, if appropriate and feasible, by terminating the supplier's connection to our information systems. Notwithstanding our efforts to mitigate any such risk, there can be no assurance that the compromise or failure of supplier information systems, technology assets, or cybersecurity programs would not have an adverse effect on the security of the Company's information systems. In an effort to effectively prevent, detect, and respond to cybersecurity threats, we employ a multi-layered cybersecurity risk management program supervised by our Chief Information Security Officer, whose team is responsible for leading enterprise-wide cybersecurity strategy, policy, architecture, and processes. This responsibility includes identifying, considering, and assessing potentially material cybersecurity incidents on an ongoing basis, establishing processes designed to prevent and monitor potential cybersecurity risks, implementing mitigation and remedial measures, and maintaining our cybersecurity program. To do so, our program leverages both internal and external techniques and expertise. Internally, among other things, we perform penetration tests, internal tests/code reviews, and simulations using cybersecurity professionals (often referred to as "white hat hackers" or a "Red Team"), to assess vulnerabilities in our information systems and evaluate our cyber defense capabilities. We also perform phishing and social engineering simulations with, and provide cybersecurity training for, personnel with Company email and access to Company assets. On a monthly basis, we disseminate security awareness newsletters to employees to highlight emerging or urgent cybersecurity threats and best practices. Externally, we monitor notifications from the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team ("CERT") and various Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (each an "ISAC"); review customer, media, and third-party cybersecurity reports; and offer bounties to responsible third-parties who notify us of vulnerabilities they are able to detect in our cyber defenses (commonly referred to as a "Bug Bounty"). Our capabilities, processes, and other security measures also include, without limitation: Security Information and Event Management ("SIEM") software, which provides a threat detection, compliance, and security incident management system; Endpoint Detection and Response ("EDR") software, which monitors for malicious activities on external-facing endpoints (e.g., Windows workstations, servers, MAC clients, and Linux endpoints); Cloud monitoring, running on primary public and private cloud environments; and Disaster recovery and incident response plans, including a ransomware response plan. We invest in enhancing our cybersecurity capabilities and strengthening our partnerships with appropriate business partners, service partners, and government and law enforcement agencies to understand the range of cybersecurity risks in the operating environment, enhance defenses, and improve resiliency against cybersecurity threats. Additionally, we are a member of the Financial Services and Information Technology ISACs and both a founding member and board member of the Automotive ISAC. Our membership with these industry cybersecurity groups assists in our efforts to protect the Company against both enterprise and in-vehicle security risks. The Company's global cybersecurity incident response is overseen by our Chief Information Security Officer. Our Chief Information Security Officer has served in that role for over 6 years and has over a decade of engineering and operations expertise with cybersecurity technologies and services. Our Chief Information Security Officer reports to our Chief Enterprise Technology Officer who has spent over two decades leading digital and technology organizations at both enterprise software companies and