CIO.com: How to have real risk management

CSO — Our coverage of the annual Global Information Security Survey conducted by CSO and CIO magazines in partnership with PwC has sparked some interesting discussions about what it takes to be a security leader. Specifically, the discussion is about how organizations can move from being a security laggard to something better. As part of those discussions, we spoke with Andy Ellis, chief security officer at Akamai Technologies. Ellis is responsible for overseeing the security architecture and compliance of the company’s globally distributed network and sets the strategic direction of its security.

CSO: What attributes must an enterprise leader in risk management have?Ellis: This is a hard thing to measure. I think the important thing is that the organization actually understands the risks that apply to them, and that they are making intelligent decisions based on that risk profile. These are the organizations that are actually out front, leading the way, defining new risk models for themselves and selecting technologies and solutions that are appropriate for their business. It’s about paving the way, not following somebody else’s cookie cutter.

Companies seem to be spending a lot on security products, but not as much on strategic efforts. Do you think it’s indicative of their already having effective strategies in place? Or, are they focusing just on the technology?In a down economy, you probably aren’t spending time revamping your strategy. Hopefully, you’re executing. That would be my guess as to what a lot of these organizations are doing. I think what you could be seeing is organizations saying “Look, I’m not going to try and rebuild my business continuity plan this year. It’s not like we actually added a thousand people. I can run with the existing plan. It’s much more important. Let’s go execute on the strategy that we didn’t finish from last year.” I think industry often spends more time thinking about strategy and less time executing. That’s what we’re seeing in the survey results: “Hey, let’s protect our jobs by going and executing on what people can see.” Many times enterprises can see a strategic change in security, and if management can’t see it, it may not have much perceived value.

More of the CIO.com article from George V Hulme

Alex Carroll

Managing Member at Lifeline Data Centers

Alex, co-owner, is responsible for all real estate, construction and mission critical facilities: hardened buildings, power systems, cooling systems, fire suppression, and environmentals. Alex also manages relationships with the telecommunications providers and has an extensive background in IT infrastructure support, database administration and software design and development. Alex architected Lifeline’s proprietary GRCA system and is hands-on every day in the data center.