Educause Security Discussion mailing list archives

Re: CISO?


From: Rodney Petersen <rpetersen () EDUCAUSE EDU>
Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 11:18:35 -0700

Below are a few more resources in response to the original question and
Gordon's response:

-The EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research security report revealed the
following:  22.4% institutions of higher education have a chief IT
security officer or equivalent; 90% of CSO's work at doctoral extensive
or intensive institutions; 95 percent of the IT security officers report
to a senior administrator in the IT office, including 50 percent who
report to the CIO; respondents were asked when their institution created
the IT security officer position and there is a clear, steady pattern of
growth beginning in 1994; Director of Networking had day-to-day
responsibility for security at over 30% of the institutions

-The EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research is considering a follow-up
study to its recent Security Report or including longitudinal questions
in an upcoming data networking study

-There is a collection of IT Security Officer job descriptions at
http://www.educause.edu/asp/doclib/detail_docs.asp?Detail_ID=6

-In a recent article, "Planning for Improved Security", by Mark Bruhn &
myself published in EDUCAUSE Review (November/December 2003)
(http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm03/erm036_articles.asp?id=10), we
describe the importance of strategy and planning to the development of
an information security program.  We also provide examples from three
institutions where in two of those cases the "planning" process resulted
in the establishment of the position of an IT security officer

-The recent book, Computer and Network Security in Higher Education
(http://www.educause.edu/asp/doclib/abstract.asp?ID=PUB7008), contains a
chapter written by Jeff Recor on "Organizing for Improved Security".
The chapter desribes creating a security plan of action, obtaining
support for the plan, establishing security leadership (which describes
the private-sectors movement towards positions of Chief Security
Officer), and an array of security job titles assigned to specific
functions.

Rodney Petersen
Security Task Force Coordinator, EDUCAUSE


-----Original Message-----
From: Gordon D. Wishon [mailto:gwishon () ND EDU] 
Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 5:14 PM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] CISO?


Phil,

There's some general information in the ECAR Security Study about the
CISO position in higher education, but not enough to really help you
answer the questions you have.  However, you'll be happy to know that
ECAR is conducting a follow up study that asks many of these same
questions.

Rodney Petersen may have some insight into when the results of that
study will be available....

Rodney??

Gordon

At 04:57 PM 1/21/2004 -0500, Rodrigues, Philip wrote:
Hi all,

I am a Network Security Analyst - you know, a low-level technical 
grunt.
:-)  The management structure above me is a little fuzzy, but the
longer
I work here the more apparent one thing becomes:

We do not have a senior management-level Information Security position.

(And no, I am not looking for a position to be promoted into!)

For those of you who do have a CISO position on your campus, how did 
you go about getting the position created?  Was there a watershed event

or was it just a natural evolution?  Have you had a CISO for a while 
now or was it just recently you saw a need for one?

For those of you without a CISO-type position on your campus, do you 
think you need one?  Do you plan on creating one?  Does your technical 
staff fill that role, or has senior IT management assumed those 
responsibilities?

Sorry if my questions are a little fuzzy - this is hardly a scientific 
survey.  I am trying to figure out how to communicate what I see as a 
need here to senior University administration, and I always like to see

if someone else has tackled this first.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Phil
--

=======================================
Philip A. Rodrigues
Network Analyst, UITS
University of Connecticut

email: phil.rodrigues () uconn edu
phone: 860.486.3743
fax: 860.486.6580
web: http://www.security.uconn.edu 
=======================================

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