What’s your company’s accountability should your customer database get hacked? Is your latest rollout compliant with current privacy regulations? What are the legal minefields around your e-health or e-commerce services? Where do get an expert security witness for the upcoming trial?
Spam, malware, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and data breaches may be everyday threats to businesses large and small, but reducing their underlying impact on business and understanding management accountability are no less important. Unfortunately, many companies end up putting out day-to-day fires and fail to obtain advice on these vital issues, according to Claudiu Popa, security specialist and president of Informatica Security Corp., an information risk management, security and privacy consulting firm in Toronto.
“Businesses don’t need more anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-theft or anti-intrusion. They need to understand the value of their intangible assets, how to protect them and to what degree they are responsible for the valuable assets in their custody,” he said.
To this end, Informatica is offering businesses a 24/7 service that will give company executives access to advisers who are experts on security, technology, privacy, compliance and other issues. “Our risk advisors are independent professional consultants that executives can contact any time of the day to provide them with advice on these matters when they need it most,” said Popa.
This sort of advice is vital for strategic planning and reducing corporate risk, he said. For instance, security regulation compliance alone has proven to be a major cost factor for businesses.
The terms “objective” and “independent” are key here, according to Popa. “This means our advisors are not involved in whatever politics or power play issues in the company. Therefore they can give unbiased and clear-headed advice.”
Clients who sign up for the service get a stainless steel card called the Blade which contains their unique code and an exclusive 800 phone number which they can use for contacting their special advisor.
The assistance available starts with basic on-call advise on areas such as privacy, security, legal issues and others. This also includes regular reports submited to the client.
Other services include advisers attending face-to-face meetings and board meetings, writing and sighning compliance reports, meeting with outside auditors and even serving as an expert witness in court cases.