In-depth

Business of IT: Building a business case for security

Security can be both the unseen hero and the weakest link in an organisation, so how do you make the case to spend enough to protect your organisation's most vital assets? Stephen Pritchard investigates...

9 Nov 2011

IT security is often likened to insurance: companies only spend money on it, after they have suffered from an attack, or from data loss. And some spending on basic, IT security is a basic cost of doing business. No company can operate safely without anti-virus software, firewalls or spam filters. And no IT manager would seriously suggest that they could.

Go beyond the basics, though, and security takes on a different form. Companies can use security technology to enable the business to work in different, and often more productive, ways.

A virtual private network (VPN) enables home working. Encryption makes it safer for staff who need to work on the road to access sensitive data. Installing a PCI-DSS compliant security infrastructure allows the business to accept credit card payments.

Often security is seen a cost you don't receive a benefit for. Thinking of it in business terms is a mental mind shift.

Some more advanced technologies still open up further possibilities.

Biometric authentication allows IT managers to give staff access to data that they might not otherwise allow beyond the firewall.

Single sign on systems for authentication reduce the danger of employees storing passwords on sticky notes on their PCs but they also reduce the number of password reset requests to the IT department.

Some emerging technologies allow firms to restrict access to documents, based on where the user is in the world, allowing businesses to open up access to documents or data that regulators might otherwise restrict to office-based users. These innovations can make an organisation more effective, or more profitable.

Changing mindsets

However, security specialists, and security vendors, have not always been especially good at explaining how the technology can pay its way in business. "Often security is seen a cost you don't receive a benefit for," says Neil Campbell, Dimension Data's general manager for security. "Thinking of it in business terms is a mental mind shift."