Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Applications
    • Applications

    IT Managers Struggle to Focus on High-Priority Risks

    By
    John Pallatto
    -
    October 29, 2004
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      SAN FRANCISCO—IT executives face more risks than ever to system security, their budgets and corporate reputations. But the most they can hope for is to focus the most resources and technology investments against the worst threats and hope the lesser concerns dont leap up to bite them.

      This was the focus of the discussion this week at a Robert Frances Group conference on “reducing risk, restoring trust: a leadership role for IT.”

      Most of the IT executives participating in the opening panel focused on operational risk assessment and management work in the banking and financial services industry where IT is the first line of defense against a multitude of hazards.

      These executives work in an industry where IT keeps the cash flowing smoothly through the economy. Serious hang-ups in a check clearing system or a back-office investment application can literally cost an institution billions of dollars and bring probing questions from the Federal Reserve and congressional committees.

      Measuring and assessing risk is the best way for IT department to ensure they will get the money they need to fix high-priority problems, said Bruce Lee, CIO with European banking group BNP Paribas.

      IT managers have to assess operational risk with the same diligence that bankers gauge credit and market risk, Lee said. When it comes to identifying risks that are at the core of a banks operations, such as fraud, theft or catastrophic equipment failures, it is easy to get the resources to fix the problem.

      “[If you] find sufficient risk you can kill any objections to committing money” to fix the problem, Lee said. But risk assessment and mitigation isnt a just a point solution; it has to be “a new operational strand” of each IT department, he said.

      Then there are risks that can also threaten an IT departments reputation and operations, but are more difficult to get money and resources for, he said.

      Next page: Building a trust cycle.

      Building trust in IT

      For example, a company can have a policy that no user can install illegal or unlicensed software on their PC, Lee said. The IT department can also order that no PC user can have administrative rights on the network. But “these policies are hard to enforce because there are no tools to monitor compliance,” he noted.

      Its also hard to get resources to solve a potential problem if the threats are measurable and perceived to be limited, Lee suggested. For example, if an organization faces the risk of incurring a $50 million fine if a particular IT administration system isnt implemented, Lee said. But the risk of incurring the fine will still be measured against the cost of implementing the system.

      In effect, you “cant scare people into spending money” when the risks are measurable and you can assess potential tradeoffs of the cost versus the risk, he said.

      For Wachovia Corp., managing risk involves carefully assessing and categorizing the potential risks to try to address the ones that have the most potential to cause problems, according to Doug Sappenfield, senior vice president of the banking giants risk management group in Charlotte, N.C.

      Wachovia has more than 11,000 servers running more than 20,000 databases, Sappenfield said. Assessing all the potential risks to the operation of all these IT resources is a challenging task.

      It became a matter of weighing inherent risks against mitigating controls to winnow the potential list down to residual risks that needed to be addressed with new policies or systems, he said. In the end, IT was left with a list of 63 items that posed acceptable risks that didnt require prompt attention, he said.

      Aside from carefully weighing the potential risks, Ted Knodel, vice president and senior consultant with the Robert Frances Group, said there are a number of measures that IT executives could carry out to reduce operational risks and increase corporate trust in the IT department.

      IT departments need to focus on the problems that are uppermost in the minds of senior corporate executives and then make sure that they know what IT has done to solve problems, reduce risks, and help the organization make and save money, he said.

      Knodels management mantra is “trust begets communication and communication begets trust.” Without this virtuous cycle, senior management will retain the same impressions that bedevil many corporate IT departments: that projects are always late and too costly, there is never enough money for the most important projects, IT isnt aligned to the most strategic needs or IT doesnt deliver value for the money it spends, he said.

      Check out eWEEK.coms Enterprise Applications Center at http://enterpriseapps.eweek.com for the latest news, reviews and analysis about productivity and business solutions.

      Be sure to add our eWEEK.com enterprise applications news feed to your RSS newsreader or My Yahoo page

      John Pallatto
      John Pallatto has been editor in chief of QuinStreet Inc.'s eWEEK.com since October 2012. He has more than 40 years of experience as a professional journalist working at a daily newspaper and computer technology trade journals. He was an eWEEK managing editor from 2009 to 2012. From 2003 to 2007 he covered Enterprise Application Software for eWEEK. From June 2007 to 2008 he was eWEEK’s West Coast news editor. Pallatto was a member of the staff that launched PC Week in March 1984. From 1992 to 1996 he was PC Week’s West Coast Bureau chief. From 1996 to 1998 he was a senior editor with Ziff-Davis Internet Computing Magazine. From 2000 to 2002 Pallatto was West Coast bureau chief with Internet World Magazine. His professional journalism career started at the Hartford Courant daily newspaper where he worked from 1974 to 1983.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Cybersecurity

      Visa’s Michael Jabbara on Cybersecurity and Digital...

      James Maguire - May 17, 2022 0
      I spoke with Michael Jabbara, VP and Global Head of Fraud Services at Visa, about the cybersecurity technology used to ensure the safe transfer...
      Read more
      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Yotascale CEO Asim Razzaq on Controlling Multicloud...

      James Maguire - May 5, 2022 0
      Asim Razzaq, CEO of Yotascale, provides guidance on understanding—and containing—the complex cost structure of multicloud computing. Among the topics we covered:  As you survey the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      GoodData CEO Roman Stanek on Business Intelligence...

      James Maguire - May 4, 2022 0
      I spoke with Roman Stanek, CEO of GoodData, about business intelligence, data as a service, and the frustration that many executives have with data...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×