Delivering Greatness

Leading Thoughts

"Leading Thoughts" is an exciting addition to the EmeSec website here you will find a short summary of thoughts that are relevant and current to EmeSec, information assurance, our customers, and the business of security.

The Future is Blurry

Irony is one of my favorite things in life. The contradictory nature of irony is that it supports both humility and hope. One of my predictions for 2012 is that the future of cyber security will be blurry – at least for the coming year.

Now, what I mean by blurry is not a lack of vision or predictions. Rather, I believe cyber security strategies for the near future will require all of us – business owners, technology users, government leaders, program managers and end-users of all sorts – to blur some of the lines of business strategy, policy, execution, and measures. The unique and complex nature of technology, social media, and cyber threats is unfolding, unequally and in an unprecedented manner.

Each organization will begin to examine their own mission and economic position, and then with humility choose a variety of strategies to gain citizen engagement, market visibility, and political momentum. The information and cyber security teams supporting these organizations will then hope that their risk-based strategy can provide an appropriate due diligence and protection of their most important asset–critical information. The irony of this prediction and the major predicament for cyber security professionals is that the best practices that are supposed to ensure better security are still in the works. Cloud computing, mobility, and social media are changing the government’s adoption of technology and creating a complex security environment.

Here are some examples to consider:

  • Should you develop a social media policy hoping for a greater ROI or pass off the opportunity as it may enhance the risks to the corporate level?
  • How about those team efforts where collaborative discussions are captured via instant messaging or another social media variation –are you capturing/archiving this information? I hope you are, especially if there is a significant attrition rate on your team!
  • If a social media policy is simply an adjustment to your electronic communications, how is it that your latest technical innovation might be leaked (“mis-tweeted”) by a passionate developer? Do you have the humility to deal with the lost investment of a planned marketing campaign or the competitive advantage to your closest rival?
  • Social media is a means of creating visibility and engagement. What if that visibility isn’t positive, who’s responsible? We hope you asked your IA consultant to include social media technologies in your eDiscovery requirements process?

EmeSec Incorporated is a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), Woman-Owned, 8(a) company. We work with clients to address their most complex cyber security challenges and protect the information that fuels government success. We’ve been working with clients on developing mobile policy strategies that consider all the end points of communication rather than just the device capability. We’ve also tailored policies to look at the communications of SharePoint Portal partners, texting and tweeting capabilities.