Security Experts say The Only Way To Secure Your Business Is Through Training

Fewer than 40% of top level executives are briefed on the security of their business assets more than once a year. The knowledge and awareness gap causes vast accountability issues in today’s corporations and CIOs everywhere continue to be frustrated by the lack of concern from their fellow executives. CSOs and CIOs main challenge this year is finding budgets for implementing security improvements.

TORONTO (PRWEB) October 28, 2004 -- Fewer than 40% of top level executives are briefed on the security of their business assets more than once a year. The knowledge and awareness gap causes vast accountability issues in today’s corporations and CIOs everywhere continue to be frustrated by the lack of concern from their fellow executives.

According to a recent FTSE350 survey of public companies, 50% of them don't think security has anything to do with share price and public perception. Unfortunately for them, 83% of investors do think so and a quarter of them would immediately take their business elsewhere.
Furthermore, 71% of executives think that security - the security of their business assets - is the responsibility of their IT staff. Again, 87% of investors say they will hold executives personally accountable.

Claudiu Popa, an executive security advisor and president of Informatica Security had this to say: “CIOs and IT managers who actually understand threats to information security before a disaster occurs are rare, but if you’re lucky enough to be one of them and find that your hands are tied when it comes to implementing security initiatives, you’re not the only one. I know that budgeting, awareness and understanding continue to be challenges in most organizations.”

Claudiu Popa offers five tips to initiate change and bring awareness into the enterprise:

1. engage an independent security expert to conduct a limited analysis of network or application security. Produce concise, readable executive reports and share them with management
   
2. offer short, one-hour workshops that help employees understand the threat as they use the Internet at work and at home. Follow up with more in-depth training for those departments that show interest. Document performance and customize future training based on audience response.
   
3. create a steering committee and engage people from a variety of levels in the enterprise. Collect feedback and produce reports. You’ll be surprised how people open up about suspected threats and opportunities for improvement.
   
4. do your homework. Map the risk to the organization and show the statistics that support strong, high-level decision making. Get IT managers on board to explain the difference between optimizing IT resources and enforcing policies, procedures and controls.
   
5. create awareness with compelling postings, visuals and posters. Contribute to the corporate newsletter and share information with all levels of the enterprise.

By following these guidelines, CIOs and CSOs will succeed in raising awareness and getting the interest of other managers and executives. Creating a realistic budget means having a plan and doing a good job on mapping risk across the enterprise. We recommend enlisting the help of a qualified security expert to quantify threats, suggest solutions and support the results.

Informatica Education is a Toronto-based security training and consulting company that offers customized training programs to raise awareness of threats to business assets. Informatica provides a wide array of unique, proprietary courses that can be delivered in one-hour workshops, half day courses or full-day learning streams. All proprietary content is designed to embrace adult learning principles, maximize retention, understanding and immediate application. WorkLife Learning is the only corporate training program customized specifically to be understood by all employees and applied immediately after completing the program. WorkLife Security Learning (www.WorkLifeLearning.ca) is the only way to implement a realistic, affordable security protection program that is supported by every employee.

Informatica Education offers the 2004 Security Landscape Study created by Informatica Research (www.InformaticaResearch.com). This half-day executive course presents managers and C-level executives with the threats, risks, trends and solutions to local, industry-specific and worldwide emerging information security issues. Email e-mail protected from spam bots to sign up.

The parent company is Toronto-based Informatica Security Corporation (www.InformationSecurityCanada.com). The company’s innovative solutions help businesses protect people, assets and resources every day. Visit Informatica’s Web site to subscribe to the PULSE, a monthly email newsletter designed specifically for non-technical managers, business owners and interested end-users. In addition to fresh, proprietary content, subscribers receive unrestricted access to the online Informatica Security Library, a repository of white papers and documents on various information security topics.

For more information or to request a complimentary 45-minute consultation, Toronto businesses can email e-mail protected from spam bots or visit www.InformaticaSecurity.com. For best-of-breed commercial information security products, visit Informatica Solutions at www.InformaticaSolutions.com. All solutions include installation, training and support.

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