Guide for IT Managers
A new guide helps IT managers to get their desired security budget through to management.
According to Pricewaterhouse Coopers, there were 48 million registered security incidents worldwide last year, with some of the damage caused running into billions. But the security budget requested to ward off such incidents often doesn't stand a chance in front of management. That's why WatchGuard Technologies has developed a Guide It is intended to support IT managers in anchoring the topic at management level. A better understanding of the security requirements on the part of the financial decision-makers is the most important prerequisite for initiating measures to implement a security concept, emphasizes network security specialist.
The guide defines a total of seven steps on the way to the desired security budget and provides concrete recommendations for action at each individual stage. For example, it shows how a company's individual security needs can be determined and what options are available for uncovering potential security gaps in the company's own network. In addition, IT managers will find helpful tips on how to best present the current situation and possible courses of action to management.
According to WatchGuard, the guide is intended to guide the user through the evaluation process and help to question the status quo of the existing protection measures. What's more, the aim is to weigh up the economic consequences of potentially exploiting the identified vulnerabilities and thus accelerate corresponding budget decisions to improve the situation.
WatchGuard's chief financial officer, Richard Barber, has a few recommendations in store for IT pros when they need to represent their particular financial needs to senior management:
- Find out to what extent the technical understanding of your counterpart is pronounced and align your presentation accordingly.
- Find out where there are further investment needs in the company that may compete with the security budget.
- Draw attention to the sometimes far-reaching economic consequences of a security incident.
- Provide several solution scenarios to choose from - including an assessment of the respective chances of success and impact of a hacker attack as well as the costs for implementing individual security measures.
