CIOs, CSOs struggle with conflicting roles

Networking Technology Update This newsletter is sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent Special Report: Managing VoIP with a Lean Staff Discover how IT executives are managing the riding tide of VoIP and collaborative applications rollouts and operation despite lean network staffs with Network World's latest Special Report "VoIP and Beyond". Click here to download this Special Report. Networking Technology Update, 07/11/07 CIOs, CSOs struggle with conflicting roles By Jon Brodkin Any chief security officer can tell you there’s a fine line between managing risk and fostering innovation. And the CSO’s relationship with the company’s CIO largely determines where that line is drawn. Manage Insider Security Threats Experts say 75% of security threats come from inside your organization. Watch the latest Network World Editorial Perspectives Webcast today, "Security From the Inside," and learn which technologies and processes best protect your intellectual property and assets inside the perimeter. Click Here to View “The chief security officer, by definition of their job, would like things to be more stringent than a CIO would practically allow,” says Marc Hoit, interim CIO and professor of civil and coastal engineering at the University of Florida. Some argue a CSO should not report directly to a CIO, as happens at the University of Florida and many other organizations. Just as you wouldn’t want a financial controller reporting to an auditor, a company’s chain of command should give the CSO somewhere to turn when the CIO takes on too much risk, argues Andreas M. Antonopoulos, senior vice president and founding partner of Nemertes Research. “The job of the CIO is to maximize return on investment, which by definition requires taking risk,” Antonopoulos says. “The job of the CSO is to maximize the amount of risk a company can take safely without going over the company’s [preferred level of] risk tolerance.” When CSOs see too much risk being taken, “they can’t report to the person who’s creating risk,” he says. “The thing is, it’s the job of the CIO to create risk. That’s what innovation is.” For more on this story, please click here.

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Contact the author: Network World's Jon Brodkin can be reached at jbrodkin@nww.com This newsletter is sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent Special Report: Managing VoIP with a Lean Staff Discover how IT executives are managing the riding tide of VoIP and collaborative applications rollouts and operation despite lean network staffs with Network World's latest Special Report "VoIP and Beyond". Click here to download this Special Report. BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007