Managing information security initiatives
A CISO and their security team are tasked with managing a company's security initiatives to ensure that the firm is safe from threats and that attackers fail in their endeavors to infiltrate the company's systems. Security initiatives come in the form of an evaluation of the threat landscape, taking the necessary measures to address identified vulnerabilities and implementing policies and security controls to ensure information assets are fully protected.
This section has introduced a major CISO role in managing information security initiatives in an organization. The next section will show how CISOs manage these initiatives.
Strategic security planning
A company has a strategic plan that addresses its long-term plans of continuity and business direction. A company's information assets and system infrastructure are critical components to the success of a company's operations. Therefore, planning for information assets and the infrastructure that safeguards these assets is part and parcel of the long-term planning of any company. The CISO is an integral component in the management of a company due to their critical role in the management of information assets and any plans relating to these assets. Both long-term information asset planning and long-term strategic business planning have to go hand in hand. While strategizing for long-term business operations, the CISO is tasked with determining how long-term plans will affect information assets and any changes to security requirements resulting from those plans. These determinations will then be included in the discussion to decide on the direction of the business.
While engaging in strategic planning for security operations within a company, the CISO needs to ensure that security plans fit the business's strategic plans, both in the short term and the long term. If a business wants to perform a full overhaul of its IT or introduce a new system as a means of improving its business operations, it needs the CISO's input in the strategic planning. This shows that the CISO, in this day and age, plays a critical role in business operations and is poised to play core roles in most businesses' long-term strategic planning.
After learning how CISOs manage information security initiatives through strategic security planning, we will next address the hiring of security team members and how this affects information security initiatives.
The hiring of a security team
The hiring of a security team is a direct responsibility of the CISO. The critical nature of the responsibilities of the CISO and the impact of the security team's work on the business risk calls for direct involvement of the CISO in hiring their team members. The CISO often has to delegate responsibilities to various team members to handle various facets of security operations. The security team members need to be individuals with both the integrity to perform this sensitive job without compromise and the technical skills to implement various security responsibilities within the company.
We have addressed the CISO's role in handling various security initiatives within a company by showing how the hiring of security team members is an important security initiative. The next section will provide more insight into their relationships with vendors and the importance of this relationship.