- Security leaders must proactively monitor and evaluate major IT trends, the threat landscape, and the security market to identify input for strategic business initiatives and to become trusted advisors to the board.
- Security leaders are short on resources to fight existing fires, let alone to allocate resources to develop forward-looking insights into what may happen to their organization.
- They will need to be able to present a strong security perspective on the latest security trends if they are to be taken seriously and earn a seat at the C-suite table.
Note: View our 2016 disruptive security trends report here.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Don’t be caught unaware about something that you didn’t know existed.
- Security is not included. For almost any new disruptive technology being presented to the market, security is not included or supported by the manufacturer or seller.
- Don’t be the Death Star. Not only do security threats change and evolve, vulnerabilities can appear overnight and can be just as harmful.
- Security has left the building. Security is moving more into the hands of the experts and out of individual organizational control.
Impact and Result
- Proactively evaluating the security impact of major disruptive technology trends, threat landscape developments, and security market trends can provide a highly security-intelligent, managed risk approach to security spend.
- The CISO or security team can leverage this forward-looking understanding to influence business strategy decision making in order to realize more overall security value.
- You will have a well-defined and understood approach for monitoring and evaluating major IT security trends and opportunities.
- There will be enablement of the CISO or security leader to be prepared for eventual conversations and requests from business units and the CEO so that they may turn ad hoc security into a long term proactive program that will no longer impede business changes.
Workshop: Exploit Disruptive Security Trends for 2015
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: What should I be aware of?
The Purpose
- Make the case on why you should not only be looking forward, but also proactively planning for disruptive security trends.
- Assess disruptive security trends’ relevance to your organization through stakeholder assessments.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Identified specific project goals.
- Determined trend relevance from educated stakeholders.
Activities
Outputs
Present disruptive technology trend to business stakeholders.
- Relevance of the technology trends to the business, as viewed by the business stakeholders.
Collect their input via a survey.
Present disruptive security trends (including technology trends, threats, and mitigation tactics) to all IT staff.
- Relevance of all the security trends, as viewed by the IT and IT security staff.
Collect their input via a survey.
Module 2: What is relevant to me?
The Purpose
- Assess current security maturity and capability levels.
- Identify and prioritize actionable disruptive security opportunities based on trend relevance and company risk profile.
- Determine security actions specific to each trend.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Evaluated current security controls and determined future requirements.
- Prioritized trend-specific actions.
Activities
Outputs
Assess your risk profile.
- Risk profile and security assessment of your organization’s controls.
Assess current security control capabilities and maturity levels.
- Prioritization of the security trends, along with specific actions for your organization.
Prioritize trends, threats, and tactics to properly allocate your time and develop specific actions.
Module 3: How do I communicate this?
The Purpose
- Create an action-oriented communication plan to gain stakeholder buy-in.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Customized communication plan.
- Gained stakeholder buy-in.
Activities
Outputs
Identify goals and objectives for your communication plan.
- Identified goals and objectives.
Determine who your stakeholders are and what they need to know.
- Identified stakeholders and the pertinent information to each audience group.
Evaluate your communication methods.
- Set communication plan to raise awareness and gain buy in from your stakeholders.
Communicate the security issues with your stakeholders.