The Hindu Business Line : Survey stresses on need for holistic approach towards corporate security

The key drivers for improving security mechanisms included both the need for compliance and the need to protect against competitive intelligence campaigns.

L.N. Revathy

Coimbatore, June 23 A survey on the overall state of corporate security in India suggests the need for a holistic approach in recognising and managing corporate security.

“The current framework is fractured and many key functionaries seem to be living in denial,” the report read.

The survey was designed by Mahindra Special Services Group and conducted by 9.9 Insights and the CTO Institute.

Sharing details of the findings with Business Line, Mahindra Special Services’ Chief Executive Officer, Capt Raghu Raman, said “executives are recognising and expressing concern about the growing threat from security breaches.

“A majority have plans to make Corporate Security Risk Management (CSRM) an integral part of their business. But they are unable to identify the direction their efforts should take.”

Attrition has been found to be the most critical reason for increased vulnerability, followed by outsourcing and increased dependence, stringent regulatory compliance, higher dependence on innovation and increased risk to physical safety, among others.

The findings revealed that a majority managed security in a reactive fashion, reviewing mechanisms only in the event of a known breach.

“There is a degree of confusion on who ultimately is responsible for ‘overall corporate security’ — the Chief Information Officer, Chief Executive Officer or the board,” he said

The key drivers for improving security mechanisms included both the need for compliance and the need to protect against competitive intelligence campaigns.

Security Breaches

Global research endorsed by Mahindra Special Services’ domestic experience showed that in the absence of robust monitoring, breaches were detected only 10 per cent of the time and of this only 10 per cent got reported since there was no incentive to report.

The annual Corporate Security Survey highlighted dissonance in the attitude to CSRM and identified gaps in CSRM.

The findings revealed security management operating through silos, where senior officers were largely unaware of the other’s domains of responsibility in an organisation and stated that these gaps were due to the prevalent ‘turf’ mentality, impeding adoption of holistic CSRM.

The respondents, it appears, seemed to agree that the real threat was not technology but people.

Reiterating the need for a proactive and holistic approach to CSRM, Capt Raman said “companies need to exploit all possible resources available to them to address the areas of concern. But so far, corporates have under-utilised these resources, especially the human factor in CSRM.”

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