Are you suffering from security fatigue? Does trying to
plug every possible gap in the network or ensuring every bit of
data is only seen by those who should see it starting to weigh you
down?
Does trying to hammer home the security message to senior
management and non-IT staff feel like a thankless – and sometimes
pointless – task?
The problem is that the race for effective IT security can never
have a finishing line. Making sure that good staff practice is
maintained and changing techniques and policies to meet evolving
threats and business priorities means that security is always going
to absorb a fair chunk of the IT director’s attention.
The real trick to effective security is squaring the circle to
meet requirements which will often seem incompatible – ease of
access to networks and data to those who legitimately need it and
the exclusion of those who may have nefarious motives or are just
careless.
The case studies in our feature article on page 36 show how one
private sector and one public sector organisation have approached
this problem in practice.
For every organisation, the key to cost-effective measures is
risk analysis, which can pinpoint the most pressing needs and help
secure funding from the board. The importance of this cannot be
underestimated, as Computer Weekly’s CIO Index shows, only 50% of
IT chiefs believe IT security is adequately funded.
Of course, IT security is big business, but as the article on
page 40 points out, however much you spend on electronic security
products and services, it can all end in tears if important
documents are left on the photocopier.
Good security doesn’t have to be rocket science. In fact, it
doesn’t even have to be science – just plain old common sense.
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