Security: A Job For the Super-CSO?

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.

Page: 1 2

Peter Judge

Peter Judge has been involved with tech B2B publishing in the UK for many years, working at Ziff-Davis, ZDNet, IDG and Reed. His main interests are networking security, mobility and cloud

View Comments

  • But at the same there is a need to segregate security duties among different staff.

    All security in one hand or all security knowledge in one brain is anoher problem or risk which should be addressed.

Recent Posts

France Fines Apple Over Ad Tracking Feature

Apple fined 150m euros over App Tracking Transparency feature that it says abuses Apple's market…

7 mins ago

OpenAI To Release Open-Weight AI Model

OpenAI to release customisable open-weight model in coming months as it faces pressure from open-source…

37 mins ago

Samsung AI Fridge Creates Shopping Lists, Adjusts AC

Samsung's Bespoke AI-powered fridge monitors food to create shopping lists, displays TikTok videos, locates misplaced…

1 hour ago

Huawei Consumer Revenues Surge Amidst Smartphone Comeback

Huawei sees 38 percent jump in consumer revenues as its smartphone comeback continues to gather…

2 hours ago

China Approves First ‘Flying Car’ Licences

In world-first, China approves commercial flights for EHang autonomous passenger drone, paving way for imminent…

2 hours ago

Microsoft Shutters Shanghai Lab In Latest China Pullback

Microsoft closes down IoT and AI lab it operated in Shanghai tech district in latest…

3 hours ago