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As Potentially Dangerous Risks Proliferate, Collaboration between IT, Security, and Compliance Is Tighter Than Ever

Redwood City, Calif., Feb. 21, 2018 – Actiance, the leader in communications compliance, archiving, and analytics, today announced results of a survey which illustrates the increasing intersection of security and compliance. The study, conducted in partnership with IDG Research, found that nearly all key tech stakeholders agree on the importance of cross-functional collaboration in managing risk and the value of establishing common control processes, and are increasingly moving toward a shared view of information risk.

Collectively, organizations today face an unprecedented volume and variety of information risks that have enterprise-wide impact, including increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity incidents, information leaks, aggressive regulatory sanctions, and the proliferation of communication channels outside the control of IT or Security. IT, Security, and Compliance personnel are seeing more and more of these risks possessing corporate-wide impact, which has led to greater overlap in their duties in fighting these threats. As a result, the majority of survey respondents highlighted the greater need for collaboration in the planning and execution of defense, monitoring, and recovery strategies.

IT, Security, and Compliance moving toward a collaborative risk management model

Key findings from the survey show that these three stakeholders are increasingly aligned in many key areas, including:

• Top priorities: Managing the risk and impact of a data breach was ranked highest across all functions, with the only exception being Risk/Compliance titles who ranked the loss of sensitive customer information slightly higher
• What’s working: Respondents across all functions overwhelmingly pointed toward clearly defined policies as an area that is working well today. Risk/Compliance titles differed from others in highlighting monitoring and alerting process controls as an area that is also working well
• In addition, these functions seem to be aligned on technology itself. Collaboration across functions in the evaluation and selection of risk management solutions appears to be a practice applied by the majority of respondents, with only 5 percent reporting that their function alone is responsible for those tasks
• What’s not working: All functions, particularly Security, reported a lack of budget and sufficient resources to carry out their duties
• Future collaboration priorities: All functions highlight the definition of common control processes as a top priority. Security respondents again differ from others in highlighting the definition of business requirements for technology solution selection as top priority
• Across all functions, adding personnel is not seen as a solution: the addition of staff was mentioned the least as a strategy for managing risk moving forward

“Although the legacy technologies, buying processes, and functionally-driven priorities of the last 15 to 20 years have left some organizations with redundant and ineffective risk management processes and solutions, many companies have successfully bridged the resulting informational and organizational silos,” said Robert A. Cruz, Senior Director, Information Governance, Actiance, Inc. “Firms are evolving toward a more holistic, collaborative model that incorporates the priorities of IT, security, and compliance stakeholders.”