Reducing the risks

Information is the lifeblood of any organisation and chief information officers (CIOs) need to create a strategy that ensures crucial business information stays protected
It can be a difficult challenge. Forrester Research says information resides across the modern organisation in different shapes and forms.

Successful IT leaders will identify sensitive knowledge and ensure that data disclosure is prevented, says the analyst firm.

But how should the CIO move towards an all-encompassing protection and
prevention approach?

The question is answered in this month’s Computing Business cover story, where IT decision-makers outline some of the challenges they face on a daily basis.

Such challenges mean now, more than ever before, technology leaders
need to focus on risk management,­ a holistic strategy that helps provide
protection across a range of key security areas, such as technological threats, human errors and corporate governance.

Top-level risk management will rely on close alignment between the IT organisation and line-of-business managers.

But working relationships between many technology and business leaders are characterised by complexity.

Jay Heiser, research vice president at analyst Gartner, says CIOs com-monly ask him how much they should spend on security.

His standard response: “Go back to the business and find how much confidentially, integrity and availability it needs.”

While clarity on broader risk requirements will help CIOs define a strong risk strategy, our cover story shows practical thinking is crucial.

Rather than seeing corporate governance as an impediment, use discipline-imposing standards ­such as the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) ­ to help you create a secure
set of risk processes.

Also develop a change advisory board, which will help you ensure new systems are tested and back-up plans created.

Finally, do not allow risk management to become risk aversion: rather than just concentrating on preventing problems, concentrate on proactive control.

This month, Computing Business is hosting a CIO roundtable to discuss the challenges of risk management ­ we will feed back those CIO opinions next month.

Take the right steps now and you could prevent information leakages that could result in lost business and an impact on your bottom line.

Read the Computing Business blog - visit: http://knowledge.computing.co.uk

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