Business is turning to bold new technologies to become stronger
through recession, but the security industry must fall in step
before it is too late.
In his keynote at the
RSA Conference 2009 in San Francisco, Brian Truskowski, general
manager of IBM's
Internet Security Systems (ISS), told delegates the security
industry was at a turning point.
Winners are positioning themselves for the impending recovery by
building next-generation infrastructure around virtualisation, Web
2.0, mobile, wireless and cloud computing.
All of these present the industry with the opportunity to
"recast security in a bold new light", to move from being a
function that stops business activity to one that enables it, he
said.
This demands change in the security industry, he said, which
still tends to focus on specific threats and selling products
instead of enabling smarter business.
Truskowski said now is the optimal time to build security into
these technologies to enable businesses to embed security into
these infrastructures and the processes they support.
"Change is all about risk, and if your infrastructure and
processes effectively mitigate risk, you can effectively manage
change," he said.
However, he warned it may already be too late to "defuse the
ticking [security] time bomb" in mobile and wireless computing.
"Just as it was with the internet, security is largely an
afterthought with mobile, and unless radical change happens, our
Blackberries and iPhones are destined to be under the same assault
as PCs are under," he said.
According to Truskowski, business will demand that the security
suppliers deliver the expertise, technology and services required
to enable boldness in the face of turbulent change.
"They will demand value for their security dollar, or they will
not do business with us," he said.