ROI Among Topics At SIA Roundtable

Mar 1, 2005 12:00 PM

Security return on investment (ROI) and the changing role of information technology (IT) in corporate security were the big topics of discussion at the 2005 Corporate Security Roundtable sponsored by the Security Industry Association (SIA) in early February in San Diego.

“ROI is one of the most abused terms related to security,” commented Jim Craft of Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems. “Business refuses to value most security processes. In security, we are playing a ‘what if’ game. You can't figure an ROI unless you know the true likelihood of the threat and the value of an asset.”

Greg Akers, senior vice president and chief technology officer of Cisco, agreed that metrics are a challenge as they relate to security. “You can't secure what you can't measure,” he said.

However, “reacting is an ROI model that doesn't scale,” commented Akers. Prevention strategies are the best solution, and the challenge is to keep pace with the acceleration of threats.

William Plante, senior director of corporate security and brand protection of Symantec Corp., emphasized the benefits of “value add” — looking for easy ways to increase the benefits of security systems.

There is a big up-side to using a company's IT network for security applications, said Craft, but too much dependency on the network can pose a threat. Speakers from companies such as Intel Corp., Cisco Systems and Siemens Building Technologies championed the benefits of integrating physical security into a company's information technology infrastructure.

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