Stuart Okin, theformer Microsoft UK chief security advisorandAccenturesecurity head, has become
the new managing director ofComsec Consulting
Global, a provider of information security and
operational risk services.
Okin, who has worked in IT security for 20 years, believes the
UK still has a long way to go to make IT secure. In an interview
with Computer Weekly he said, "The biggest challenge for UK
businesses is that
IT security is very fragmented."
Security in UK businesses tends to be handled by several
departments, Okin said. "There is not really a sense of a top down
security strategy. Instead, components of security are handled by
people responsible for networks, datacentres, application
development, anti-fraud and compliance."
This makes it difficult for IT security chiefs to put in place
company-wide policies such as
identity and access management. "It costs too much and someone
ends up asking who pays for it," he said.
However, with budgets under pressure in 2009, Okin urged IT
security heads to centralise and consolidate IT security.
"Centralise IT security in a way that does not increase the risk to
the business."
Okin was previously an Accenture partner, where he was
responsible for the security team in the UK. While at Accenture,
Okin worked closely with a number of large enterprises,
specifically in the area of identity and access management and
application and infrastructure security.
During his time at Microsoft, he was the public face of the
company's Trustworthy Computing strategy. He was on the front line
during the
SQL
Slammer security breach, where unpatched MS SQL server
databases were targeted by hackers.