Infosec Management Tip: Cultivate Understanding

Cultivate Understanding This is the opposite of running around trying to inform everybody of what you think is the biggest problem. It means getting with them to understand what their problems are, where their risk prioritization is and then find out where your concerns fit in there. Maybe they’re already aware of the threat and aren’t concerned; or maybe they have a way to mitigate it you hadn’t thought of; or maybe they need to listen, but don’t trust Infosec yet. By bringing the business into the Infosec decision making process, there’s more trust, more chance they’ll listen when you talk, more chance you’ll have the right answer for their needs and usually that all means more budget, plus more willingness to go along with what you want!

Example: I know of a company that was going into China to open R&D centers. The CISO was trying to say “no we shouldn’t, it’s too risky because somebody could steal our IP.” But the business knew this – their strategy around it was to lean on other assets like brand reputation (which is actually fairly well protected in China) to prevent against that. In other words, lost IP wouldn’t necessarily translate into lost revenue or profits. In another company the BOD wanted to have their updates and formal reports delivered to an iPad. The CISO worked with Finance to say yes because the costs of securing the digital distribution were less and results better than securing the hard copies. IT and Security helped save money, reduce risk and got a high visibility win for the company.

This is part of a series of short tips for Information Security Managers, where Stratigos Security will provide you with some of the benefits of our experience working with companies large and small. If you like what you read, come back for more!

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