TechNet, audit firms team up on cybersecurity best practices

Computerworld - SAN FRANCISCO -- TechNet, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based group of more 200 CEOs and senior high-tech executives, this week said it is teaming with four major audit firms to define best practices on cybersecurity for senior managers.
TechNet will work with Deloitte & Touche LLP, Ernst & Young International, KPMG International and PricewaterhouseCoopers to develop guidelines designed to help senior executives evaluate their companies' levels of security preparedness.
The Cyber Security Practices Adoption Campaign being prepared by TechNet is designed to create awareness of business survivability issues, risk assessment and mitigation strategies as well as contingency planning, according to Rick White, president of TechNet. "We are trying to put together some processes so that any company can figure out where they stand" from a security perspective, White said at a news conference at the RSA Conference here this week.
This kind of private-sector initiative is precisely what is needed to promote better security practices, said Howard Schmidt, chairman of the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board. "It was exactly what we had in mind when we created the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace," he said.
Organizations are asking for just this sort of help, Schmidt said. As a result "we are seeing more groups start to come together to share best practices."
TechNet will model its recommendations on similar guidelines drafted last year by the Internet Security Alliance (ISAlliance), said John Shaughnessy, vice chairman of the Arlington, Va.-based ISAlliance and a vice president at Visa U.S.A. Inc.
Last year, the ISAlliance published a list of 10 recommended security practices for CEOs and senior managers. The TechNet initiative should help push those guidelines out to a wider cross section of companies, Shaughnessy said.
However, TechNet's focus on top-level management touches only part of the problem, said Michael Rasmussen, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. It's also necessary to disseminate best practices and guidelines to "the people in the trenches" who administer and implement IT security, he said.
Rasmussen is in charge of a committee of the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) that's drafting a set of principles offering practical implementation advice for security professionals. The Oak Creek, Wis.-based ISSA is slated to release its Generally Accepted Information Security Principles later this year. They will include tips for organizational governance, executive management and operational management, as well as practical steps for implementing security measures.