Johannesburg, 21 Apr 2009
Making do with what you have has become the dictum of corporate security in these tough economic times. Business is curtailing spending throughout its operations and personnel are left with the task of maintaining or increasing the organisation`s information security without an adequate budget.
"The unpopular but simple reality today is that security departments need to take stock of what they have and make it work," says Amir Lubashevsky, executive director of Magix Integration. "Given that information security threats are continually increasing, especially the internal risks from one`s own staff, security teams need to do more with what they have and do it better."
The primary focus of corporations must, therefore, be to consolidate their security silos under one central, strategic protection framework (SPF), which is addressable through a central dashboard or risk management interface. The SPF brings together all the bits and pieces of the enterprise`s security processes, from internal processes through to portable gadgets that may be used by mobile workers under the one central management platform.
This provides the business with a strategic overview of its information infrastructure. Moreover, it also provides the ability to integrate information security into the broader security policies of the business. This integrated interface can monitor areas of risk, initiate incident alerts and keep the organisation`s security under strict control.
"The key," adds Lubashevsky, "is to manage the integration process with the tools already in use in the organisation, integrating different proprietary systems into the management console."
Moreover, the SPF should not be designed only to monitor, but must also be ready to capture evidence of wrongdoing in a manner that is admissible in court. It is often the case that the collection of evidence is done in a haphazard manner, designed to alert the company to problems instead of delivering results able to assist in prosecution when required.
As the economy declines, it is common to see crime increasing in almost every sphere of business. The integration of all enterprise protection services into an SPF that looks after the entire information process is a crucial crime preventative mechanism.
"The silo approach to security only protects certain areas of the enterprise, leaving holes that intelligent criminals can easily exploit to either steal information, money or assets," concludes Lubashevsky. "Integrating the separate components into a single SPF delivers a single security layer that covers the whole enterprise more effectively, without requiring an excessive increase in spending."
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