AND APPLY SECURITY GOVERNANCE PRINCIPLES
Security governance is the set of responsibilities, policies, and procedures related to defining, managing, and overseeing security practices at an organization. Security is often mistakenly considered to be an IT issue; in actuality, securing an organization's assets and data is a business issue and requires a high level of planning and oversight by people throughout the entire organization, not just the IT department. Because security is a wide-ranging business issue, security governance commonly overlaps with corporate governance and IT governance for an organization. As such, security governance is typically led by executive management at a company, usually including the board of directors. Applying security governance principles involves the following:
Aligning the organization's security function to the company's business strategy, goals, mission, and objectives
Defining and managing organizational processes that require security involvement or oversight (e.g., acquisitions, divestitures, and governance committees)
Developing security roles and responsibilities throughout the organization
Identifying one or more security control frameworks to align your organization with
Conducting due diligence and due care activities on an ongoing basis
Alignment of the Security Function to Business Strategy, Goals, Mission, and Objectives
An effective security function must be in alignment with the company's business strategy, goals, mission, and business objectives. Each of these elements should be considered during the creation and management of the organization's information security program and policies.
Companies that fail to properly align their security program with their business strategy, goals, mission, and objectives often perceive security as a business blocker; these companies frequently experience information security as a hurdle that must be cleared to get things accomplished. On the contrary, an information security function that is tightly aligned with a company's strategy and mission can serve as a business enabler, where security is built into the fabric of the company and helps drive toward common goals and objectives. In other words, a company should achieve its mission thanks in part to security, not despite security.
A mission statement is a simple declaration that defines a company's function and purpose; a mission statement summarizes what the company is, what it does, and why the company exists to do those things. A mission statement should be used to drive all corporate activities, including the organization's allocation of time, finances, and effort.
A business strategy describes the actions that a company takes to achieve its goals and objectives. Whereas a mission statement describes what will be achieved, an organization's business strategy identifies exactly how the mission will be accomplished. A company's mission statement rarely changes, but an organization's strategy must be flexible enough to change as the business environment changes.
A goal, in business, is something that an organization expects to achieve or accomplish. Business goals help a company plan for success, and an organization's goals should contribute to its mission. Many companies use the SMART criteria to define their organizational goals. SMART is a mnemonic acronym that defines criteria for creating quality goals. A SMART goal must exhibit the following characteristics:
Specific: State what you will do using real numbers and real deadlines.
Measurable: Identify a way to evaluate progress and measure success (or failure). Use metrics or data targets to ensure that the goal is trackable.
Achievable or Attainable: Establish challenging, but possible, goals that are within your scope.
Relevant: Establish a goal that is pertinent to your overall mission and vision and aligned with your organization's values and strategy.
Time-bound: State when you will get the goal done, using specific dates or timeframes.
An objective is a milestone or a specific step that contributes to an organization reaching its goals and achieving its mission. Objectives are used to define incremental steps toward achieving a broader goal. Much like SMART goals, organizations often use the SMART framework to define quality objectives. While many people incorrectly use the terms goal and objective interchangeably, you should understand that an objective is a short-term milestone that supports a longer-term goal.
When establishing your organization's security function, you should begin by defining a security strategy that aligns with your organization's overall business strategy and mission statement. You should develop a set of specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals and objectives that will help you efficiently maintain the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your company's systems and information without disrupting your organization's ability to achieve its business goals and objectives. Running an effective security program demands careful consideration of business needs and organizational strategy, in addition to legal and compliance requirements, and requires governance to manage the effectiveness of the security function within the overall organization.
Organizational Processes
People who consider information security a purely IT matter are more prone to focusing solely on the technologies that fit into a security program. As a CISSP, you should know that a mature information security program is more than a collection of firewalls, intrusion detection systems and intrusion prevention systems (IDSs/IPS), and other tools thrown together — a well-managed security program requires processes in place to provide oversight of activities by executive members of the organization. Security governance is the set of all organizational processes involved in defining and managing information security policies and procedures, including the oversight to ensure that those policies and procedures follow the direction of the organization's strategy and mission.
Governance Committees
A governance committee is a group of executives and leaders who regularly meet to set the direction of the company's security function and provide guidance to help the security function align with the company's overall mission and business strategy. Governance committees review ongoing and planned projects, operational metrics, and any other security matters that may concern the business as a whole. The primary objective of a governance committee is to provide oversight for the company's security function, while ensuring that the security function continues to meet the needs of the organization and its stakeholders.
There are many organizational processes that require a heavy dose of security governance. Mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures are major business events that come with a great deal of security risk that a company must manage.
Mergers and Acquisitions
A merger is the combining of two separate organizations that creates a new, joint organization. An acquisition is the takeover of one organization by another. While mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have different business approaches, they share many of the same security concerns and are often discussed together.
There are countless potential security risks when a company acquires another company or when two organizations decide to merge. For any merger or acquisition, it's imperative that organizations consider these risks and identify appropriate mitigations before pulling the trigger. Some M&A risk factors to consider include the following:
Absorbing the unknown: When merging with or acquiring another organization, you are absorbing its entire IT infrastructure — good or bad. This means that you are acquiring systems that are likely managed differently from your own, and there may be significant differences in the security controls and processes in place. In addition, the acquired company may use homegrown or highly customized applications that