Over the next year or so, this space will provide a monthly guest perspective on various aspects of regulatory compliance from the leading information security companies that make up our CSIA's membership. For our inaugural column, I'd like to focus on the need for Congressional action on data security.
For all of the change that occurs in the industry, there remains one immutable consideration that every IT security manager must deal with: the justification of security costs.
The 9/11 attacks may have left the nation's power grid unaffected in 2001, but the August 2003 blackout knocked out power to some 400 million Americans. Combined, these incidents stressed the possible impact a widespread outage could cause and prompted concerns about cybersecurity.
Regulatory pressures continue to shape the demand for "more security" in IT operations. Sarbanes-Oxley is being implemented with a fair bit of grumbling, but it has caused many organizations to strengthen their security posture. CIOs who were previously stymied in their efforts to implement security programs can now wave the "Sarbanes-Oxley flag" to justify their IT investments.
Ahhhhh, the internet. We are hooked, and we better be prepared for the consequences. Real dollars are being lost, identities are being stolen, botnets are running rampant, consumer ATM cards are being compromised, spam is jamming our inboxes, the press is reporting stories that contribute to consumer cyber fears, and mankind again finds itself waging a protracted war — this time against internet insecurity.
The break-neck speed and frequency with which corporate data breaches are happening these days has most enterprise executives racing to avoid becoming the next headline.
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