Stuart King's Security and Risk Management Blog

As the winter nights begin to close in, the family gathers around the fireplace for warmth and we'll tell each other stories. My current favorite is an old one entitled "the 10 deadly sins of information security management." This was written by Basie and Rossouw von Solms and published in Computers & Security Journal, July 2004.

Here are the ten sins as they are written...

1. Not realizing that information security is a corporate governance responsibility (the buck stops right at the top)

2. Not realizing that information security is a business issue and not a technical issue

3. Not realizing the fact that information security governance is a multi-dimensional discipline (information security governance is a complex issue, and there is no silver bullet or single ‘off the shelf’ solution)

4. Not realizing that an information security plan must be based on identified risks

5. Not realizing (and leveraging) the important role of international best practices for information security management

6. Not realizing that a corporate information security policy is absolutely essential

7. Not realizing that information security compliance enforcement and monitoring is absolutely essential

8. Not realizing that a proper information security governance structure (organization) is absolutely essential

9. Not realizing the core importance of information security awareness amongst users

10. Not empowering information security managers with the infrastructure, tools and supporting mechanisms to properly perform their responsibilities