Information technology and information security has long been regarded as a business expense to many organizations. This view is slowly changing over in the US market where businesses are now using various areas of IT as a revenue generator but this idea is not really prevalent on the other side of the Pacific in Asia yet.
Nonetheless for 2006 onwards, more IT security professionals are now being invited into the corporate board rooms around the globe, wielding more influence and finding increased opportunities for this growing market. This will be a good time for lowly paid technical staff like network engineers or system engineers to upgrade their skills and knowledge in information security ie SOX compliancy to get a higher pay.
According to the recent Ernst & Young’s 8th annual Global Information Security Survey in November 2005, compliance with regulations in the USA and Europe has taken the lead as the primary driver and use of information security.
The sheer number of regulations and the consequences of not complying with them has escalated information security to the boardroom. Nearly two-thirds of survey respondents – representing 1,300 global companies, government and non-profit agencies in 55 nations cited compliance with regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) , the EU’s 8th Directive or their equivalent as the primary rollout of information security.
Information security professionals, already experiencing a surge in demand for their badly needed technical skills, may also get a chance this year to flex their business acumen.
The 2005 Global Information Security Workforce Study, sponsored by the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, or (ISC)2, found that more than 70 percent of respondents believe they exercised more influence on executives in 2005 than in the previous year. More than 73 percent expect their influence to continue growing.
More IT Security Pros Filling Executive Roles source | Picture sourced from www.glasbergen.com
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Tracked on: January 19, 2006 2:05 PM | Permalink to Trackback