Database Helps Security Executives Benchmark Their Operations

Apr 3, 2007 2:25 PM

Many security executives track and measure every possible element of their security program.

Management may be impressed, or they may ask: "Are these numbers good or bad? Are they too high, too low or right on? Are we paying too much to achieve them or not enough to be where we should be?"

Answers to these questions are elusive. There have never been standard metrics, and security results have generally not been shared.

That is, until now.

The Security Executive Council (SEC) has activated its International Security Metrics and Benchmarking Database. This tool allows security executives to measure the business value of their own security operations by creating benchmarks based on real, active data from organizations across the globe.

Each month, the SEC will post four or five new metrics-related questions on its Web site. Respondents who take the surveys will receive free benchmark data via e-mail once the responses reach a critical mass.

All information is submitted in a manner to protect the privacy of each organization.

The survey questions cover 13 categories from the council's publication Measures and Metrics in Corporate Security, a management guide written by SEC Emeritus Faculty Member George K. Campbell, former CSO at Fidelity Investments.

"The database is designed as the first repository of objectively collected security performance data coming directly from the people best positioned to evaluate the performance of their own company," said Bob Hayes, managing director for the Security Executive Council.

The SEC has established relationships with four of the industry's leading security magazines, including Access Control & Security Systems, to share the project's results with their readers.

To read more and to get a free report, visit www.csoexecutivecouncil.com/public/surveys/?sourceCode=access.

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