Security: A Job For the Super-CSO?
With security risks converging, the chief security officer has to master them all – and gain support from the whole organisation
The concept of security has expanded so far that the security officer’s job is in danger of spinning into separate pieces, unless it can evolve into a role which takes overall responsibilities and combines different kinds of security, according to discussions at the UK’s IFSEC security show.
While security risks have grown, the number of areas covered has expanded to include financial risks, new regulations and even the company’s image, according to discussion at IFSEC, which this year took place in Birmingham.
So security officers may have to handle CCTV and doorlocks as well as potential online sales fraud, staff background checks and role-based access to resources.
The birth of the super-CSO
“The whole concept of ‘security’ has expanded way beyond the traditional remit into areas such as brand and IP protection, human protection, loss prevention, organised crime, parallel trading, online and more traditional forms of fraud,” according to Brian Sims, editor of Security Management Today, writing on the Info4Security news service.
The endless fire-fighting still goes on, but there’s a wider issue, Sims reported. Risks have “converged”, and departments within organisations need to change the way they operate – and that change needs to come from board level.
To handle the new environment, organisations need a “cross-enterprise risk view” – and that means a lot of work finding out what the actual risks are and the best way to deal with them, from the point of view of the whole business.
According to a new report, ‘Convergence of Security Risks’ (PDF) from security industry group ASIS International, the ability to achieve meaningful convergence or a blended approach to security risk management is the responsibility of each business functional leader.
