28 May 2008

Shift into business roles for CISMs

Rob Stringer

A recent survey has revealed a changing trend in how information security managers perceive their role, with focus shifting from technology to business.

The survey also highlights how vital the area is to organisations, with growing importance placed on the position as an invaluable company asset.

The Information Security Career Progression Survey was carried out by ISACA, an organisation for information governance, and interviewed over 1 400 CISMs (Certified Information Security Managers) throughout 83 countries.

It was designed to collate information on the roles that CISMs held previous to their current positions, and aimed to find out where they saw their careers heading.

The results indicated that there was a growing trend among CISMs to advance into business-related roles, with 40.6% revealing that they intended to enter executive management, 40.6% hoping to become a chief information security officer and 27.1% aspiring to a chief security officer role.

“The role of information security management is quickly evolving to direct the use of technology to solve or prevent business problems instead of being a purely technical specialisation,” commented Lynn Lawton, international president of ISACA. “It is encouraging to see that CISMs are taking increased responsibility for business functions such as risk management, governance and architecture.”

The most frequent business–related pursuit performed by the respondents was revealed to be risk management, for which 75.6% assumed responsibility. This displayed a significant rise from the 54.8% who could cite this endeavour as being their responsibility in a previous position.

Other common duties were security program management, data security, policy creation, and maintenance and regulatory compliance.

“It is clear that certified information security managers are experiencing career growth and moving up higher into management,” noted Evelyn Susana Anton, chair of the CISM Certification Board. “This shows that these functions are vital business drivers and are receiving increased attention from boards of directors and executive management.”

Delegates from over 20 different industries were surveyed, the highest proportion being from banking and financial services, consulting, technology and the government.

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