Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Business
Security
Security needs to be balanced
with business needs
Figure 16.5
The right business perspective
.
The Business Perspective
Security, first and foremost, must be put in the right business perspective
(Figure 16.5). As an application designer, one needs to look at what
security is trying to achieve and why a particular entity is being secured.
While ensuring that one's solution is part of a larger security strategy,
one's options are driven by the costs, returns, and trade-offs of making
an application very secure.
Priority Varies with Industries
The importance given to security varies with industries. In the case of the
entertainment industry — music, movies, games — the entire company
or industry recognizes its value because, in such industries, the information
assets are the main source of revenue. Some other sectors such as financial
services, Internet banking, or credit cards, which depend heavily on
electronic transactions, are very clear of their need to protect their systems
and data. In such industries, security gets everybody's priority.
In other industries, they may not be so. Manufacturing industries may
provide security for goods, plant, and premises, but not for information
assets. Similarly, some small and medium-sized businesses may be
complacent; because they are small or out of the mainstream, they may
assume that they do not face such risks. Sometimes such customers do
not want to invest in security at all. However, analysts and designers may
 
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