Credit crunch could be a good thing for IT security

The economic turmoil may lead to a hold on IT spending, but could be seen as offering new opportunities for the security industry, according to CA.

Tim Dunn, vice president for security management at CA, was being interviewed by Gartner analyst John Pescatore at the Gartner IT Security Summit in London. He said that mergers and acquisitions that occurred due to economic uncertainty were actually a driving force for business spending on security, especially with identity and access management.

Dunn said: “Allowing two major organisations to start sharing business processes in a trusted way - very, very quickly - is part of what identity and access management can help enable.

He said it was possible to get very strategic about how security could help organisations stuck in the turmoil to become more competitive and agile, as well as supporting new business models. This could only come with more, rather than less, spending on IT security.

He claimed: “I think the defensive companies, those who only think about cost cutting, who are going to be the losers.”

The vice president said that the perception and positioning of security in business had changed significantly even before the economic turmoil of the last weeks and months. He said that for CA customers, security was even more of an enabler for them to complete their business objectives.

He also said that turmoil would accelerate the changing role of the chief information security officer (CISO) within businesses.

Dunn said: “The role of the CISO has varied, but it has never quite met the point where hard business is being done. The market leading organisations now see the CISO and his team right in the heart of building business strategy as they move into the next generation of web enabled business.”

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