Kevin Beaver's Security Blog

Good management yet bad results? No way!

I was watching my favorite TV channel yesterday (SPEED) and heard well-known racer Tommy Kendall say something that struck a cord. He was actually quoting Carlos Ghosn, head of Renault, who said:

“There’s no such thing as good management with bad results.”

I immediately thought, hey, this ties into what I do for a living.

Many, many people believe they have information security under control yet time and time again they come up short in their security assessments – or worse – they have a breach. This stuff happens and they’re up in arms. They don’t understand what happened. They claim to have firewalls, a good network admin, and formal security policies…what gives, they ponder.

Folks, good security is not merely the presence of firewalls, a good network admin, and formal security policies. It’s about making these things and others all work together in the right way day in and day out. This means management pulling their heads out of the sand and realizing that security is a business issue that needs their attention. This thing called information security takes leadership and hands-on management thoroughly and consistently every day of the week.