Q: What is the fundamental benefit of any Incident Reporting and Investigation Management system?
A: The ability to reference and learn from past incidents, either alone or in compilation, in order to prevent future incidents. In other words… metrics and analysis.
It comes down to the security department’s ability to track, reference and analyze incidents in order to improve security and mitigate risk. Sometimes, it’s about referencing stats so that you can justify your budget for the necessary countermeasures. In other instances, it’s about referencing stats that showcase how well your security department is performing… one month over the next, one year over the next, compared to other organizations in the same geographical area or industry, etc.
Recognizing that we wanted to take a deep dive into the world of security metrics and how it has evolved in recent years, we contacted a former editor of Security Management, Peter Ohlhausen, to get his take on the subject (and to take advantage of his research skills), and we paired him up with our own resident expert, my Co-CEO, Brian McIlravey, CPP. We compiled their findings, then added some fresh insights and examples. The result is a new white paper entitled, Metrics and Analysis in Security Management.
[click to continue…]
I have two phrases courtesy of our Keynote Speaker, Shayne Bates, CPP, of Microsoft Global Security that I have to share… ‘culture of no’ and ‘end user bypass’. Do you have any idea what he was referring to?
For ‘culture of no,’ Shayne was referring to the IT departments of most organizations where the easy answer—admittedly sometimes with very good reason—is ‘no’. In the past, you couldn’t get around it. Now, you can, and with an ‘end user bypass’, you circumvent the IT group by going straight to the Cloud. As amusing as this may be to anyone who’s ever had a tough time with IT, the best way, of course, is for IT and Corporate Security to work together. And, throughout his keynote, Shayne touched on the importance of a partnership with IT as he shared some general Cloud knowledge with the attendees while appealing to their security sensibilities by sharing the Cloud Strategy currently in place at Microsoft Global Security.
[click to continue…]
It’s Day One of our Users’ Conference and Perspective clients from all over North America (and one from Australia!) have converged on the TradeWinds resort in St. Pete Beach, Florida for two days ALL about Incident Management. It’s a sold out crowd with some high expectations.
As I was speaking with various attendees who are back for their third, fourth and, in one case, eighth conference, they all expressed how much the Users’ Conference has impacted them in the past and how… given that… they need to return home this year with even more knowledge and ideas.
So, can you really keep learning, year after year, when you’re talking about the same software system with the same fundamental purpose?
[click to continue…]
PPM has always sold internationally… while the majority of our business is, like us, centered in North America, our Incident Management solutions have been used everywhere—from Tunisia, to Singapore, to South Africa. Something that has changed in recent years, though, is the use of our product by global organizations who centralize management of the system but have users in multiple countries, often across divisions and subsidiaries.
It’s an exciting evolution for PPM as we expand our software to support multiple languages and set up systems that are used, literally, around the world.
[click to continue…]
Introducing our latest case study…
Optimizing Resources, Shrinking Losses—
Perspective at Microsoft Global Security
“Perspective makes it easy to collect, access and track data. When an incident occurs, the data goes in, and we immediately have access to the information we need to make mission critical decisions.”
—Brian Tuskan, Senior Director of Global Security Technology & Investigations, Microsoft Corporation
The fact that Microsoft Global Security uses Perspective gives everyone at PPM an incredible sense of pride and accomplishment. We recognize that they are diligent in their review of software vendors and have high expectations for the latest technology and ongoing enhancements. We are also proud of what they’ve been able to do with Perspective and, ultimately, the incidents it has helped them prevent—“By trending with Perspective, we changed our security approach and cut laptop thefts in half.”
[click to continue…]
