PROTECTING INFORMATION ASSETS is the information security program's primary directive. But the industry's inadequate strategies are partly to blame for its failures to do so; the industry seems satisfied with its current game plan. We allow vendors and compliance to direct how we should protect assets without regard to analyzing what risks would be minimized by implementing the proposed technology. If we truly believe in protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA) of our information assets then we must think outside the box and take the time to analyze risk, and design security systems that can reduce residual risk.

Security breaches (more than 260 million records lost since ChoicePoint; more than 30 million in 2008) are happening despite substantial investment in perimeter security defenses and compliance. The current standards and compliance efforts used to help protect our information assets are disproportionately technical and do not adequately address the current threats and security risks. It is clear that spending additional money on technology is not the answer to the problem; nor is spending money on compliance or program development, without addressing root causes.

The risk process must be rooted in the principles of security and integrated into a security program that blends business needs, due care, current attack vectors as well as addressing the requirements of regulations and contractual requirements. Compliance with