Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

The SEC’s perspectives on strategic planning and emerging issues.

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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Five Steps to Renovate a Security Program

A security program may require overhaul or revitalization for a variety of reasons - restructuring, new leadership, recovery from an impactful incident, or simply the recognition that things just aren't working the way they need to. Here is an infographic to help lead the way.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Choosing the Right Security Vendor

When choosing a security vendor, cost is most often a primary determinant. However, you will likely get a better return by making sure to go beyond the bottom line and evaluate the vendor by these six criteria.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Security Optimization - Looking Beyond Traditional Definitions of Convergence

It's long been a common assumption in security that most high-performing and successful security functions operate within a "converged" structure, with corporate and cyber security reporting to a single security or risk executive. But is that assumption true?
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Next Generation Security Leader Research

The Next Generation Security Leader infographic (v.2) is a representation of the skills, elements and knowledge needed for today’s security function. Download your copy!
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Security Barometer: Security's Gains and Gridlocks: 2023

We've seen many clients leveraging new and existing innovations to the benefit of their organizations, their functions, and even their communities. We've also seen security leaders plagued by familiar challenges. Here's a rundown of the most notable gains and gridlocks security leaders have discussed with us in 2023.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

SEC's Business Intelligence and Innovation Lab Now Open

Risk-focused, actionable analysis will help corporate security see around corners.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Security Barometer: Why Many Corporate Security Functions Seem to be Experiencing Reductions in Staff and Budgets

While it may seem like today's environment might be demanding greater need for security professionals, we are hearing more about organizations experiencing reductions in Security budgets and staff.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

New Developments in Proactive Loss and Anomaly Detection

Companies lose money in a diversity of ways, but whether the loss is via theft, fraud, poor management, or error, the longer it takes to detect it, the more costly it will be. This summary of a Security State of the Industry meeting discusses tools and techniques of proactive loss detection.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Security Barometer: Is Social Unrest Having an Impact on Your Organization?

This Security Barometer investigated how Security is responding to the threat of social unrest and disobedience for their organizations.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Security Barometer: How Will Current Economic Conditions Affect Security

There is little debate that economic conditions affect businesses, but we want to investigate if the economy is expected to have a significant impact on the Security function within organizations.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

You Are Here: How Knowing Where You Are Can Help Get You Where You’re Going

Understanding your current conditions, culture, circumstances, and resources helps you to make the right choices for your situation, so you can find the combination of security elements that will best serve you.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Strategic Planning: Security Program Life Cycle

The following is an abbreviated portion of the Security Executive Council's strategic planning process. The process represents a compilation of methods we have use successfully with several companies.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Universe Assessment Identifies Gaps and Opportunities

At the Security Executive Council's May 2022 State of the Security Industry (SSOI) Briefing, SEC staff and faculty led participating Tier 1 security leaders through the new Security Success Universe Assessment, designed to help them identify gaps, find credible organizational partners, and enhance security offerings to fit the needs of their organizations.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Are You Thinking Strategically?

If you find yourself asking why you struggle to influence executives, an imbalance between tactical and strategic thinking may be part of the problem.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

The Manager's Handbook for Business Security

The Manager’s Handbook for Business Security is the quick-reference guide to successful security management. New security managers don’t always have the luxury of time to deeply research comprehensive textbooks on security fundamentals before they start taking action to build their programs. The same applies to security practitioners transitioning from the...
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Influential Strategies for Corporate Security

A good strategy can mean the difference between Security being thought of as a necessary cost and Security being thought of as an enterprise-level risk partner.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

The State of Security Convergence

Are preconceptions about the convergence of corporate and cyber security accurate in practice?
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Physical Security Strategy and Process Playbook

The Physical Security Strategy and Process Playbook concisely and comprehensively lays out the requirements of physical security management as a critical part of sound business management. The book includes an explanation of basic physical security concepts; a description of the probable security risks for more than 40 functional areas in...
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

2021 Corporate Security Organizational Structure, Cost of Services and Staffing Benchmark: Selected Highlights

About This Research The data used in this analysis were provided by SLRI members and Tier 1 Security Leaders™ of the Security Executive Council. All are risk management practitioners comprising a broad cross-section of industries. The organizations represented come from the public and private sectors; they range from small and...
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Faculty Advisor: Enterprise-Wide Collaboration to Minimize Impact of Activist Events

Q. We want to develop an action plan for dealing with activist groups. Can you provide pointers for evaluating and disseminating strategies that would minimize disruption and promote a safe environment during this type of activity or event?
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

What Should Your Corporate Security Organizational Structure Look Like?

Use research data to help support your ideas for improving security's org chart.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Faculty Advisor: Time Utilization and Staffing Capacity Analysis

My company is in the midst of a reduction in force, and security is one of many areas being required to provide senior management with an analysis of time, cost of services and programs, and staff utilization. What is the most effective way to approach this exercise, keeping in mind that the goal is to maintain our current level of full-time equivalents?
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

How Firm is Your Security Foundation

Assessing these eight elements can help you ensure that your strongest programs aren't undermined by a weak foundation.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Security Barometer: Is COVID-19 Putting Your Budget or Team at Risk for Reductions?

If Security cannot contribute like they have in the past due to stagnation of certain business activities - will this result in cuts?
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Reimagine Risk and Security: Evolving Beyond COVID

If we want to adapt to an uncertain future, we first must look at what we’re doing now, why and how we’re doing it, and then examine whether that model matches the reality we are facing.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Why Security Needs to Understand Digital Transformation: A Primer

Security cannot ignore that their customers expect transactional experiences to be easy, fast and reliable.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Security Barometer Results: Do Cyber and Corporate Security Work Together in Your Organization?

Both cyber/information security and corporate/physical security have roles to play in protecting and securing the organization.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Security Barometer Results: Three Wishes 2020

What elements would add the most value to security leaders and their teams?
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Streamlining Security Programs from the Start

Beginning a new project or starting a new program can feel like an exercise in futility at the beginning. Here is how to quickly get everyone on the same page.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Security Barometer Results: What is the Security Department's Biggest Challenge

Leading security programs is a difficult job. Not only does the risk environment evolve but the organization's managing business leaders bring their own challenges to the job.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

When Your Security Proposals Keep Hitting a Wall, Try Looking at Your Security Service Delivery Model

Sometimes the service delivery model can be a leading indicator as to why your ideas for enhancing security are not being funded by executive management.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Budget, Staffing, Accountability: How Can a Service Technology Roadmap Help?

Let's focus now on some specific situations in which a technology roadmap can help an organization.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Faculty Advisor: Current Challenges Security Leaders are Facing

One of the most frequent questions we’re asked is what are the challenges or hot issues leading CSOs we work with are encountering?
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

When Your Security Nightmare Comes True

A brief overview of the changes playing out in the legal realm of negligence, defensibility, and what constitutes a defensible security program.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Responding to a Changing Risk Picture in an Economic Downturn

Security leaders need to proactively address the business changes.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Forces of Change: What's on Senior Management's Radar and the Potential Impact on Your Security Strategy

We've tracked a few trends of executive interest that are likely to come up in board meetings and hallway conversations. If you're not ready to talk about your response to these issues, now is a good time to examine them.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Corporate Security Maturity Assessment Peer Comparison

This is a comparison summary of scores from security leaders who have completed maturity assessments based on the SEC's maturity framework maturity scores.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Economic Espionage and the Growing Case for Corporate Counterintelligence

The theft of information and intelligence is increasingly gathered on U,S, companies by foreign entities that use the results for a variety of different type of what is now called economic espionage.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Managing and Defending a Security Budget: Laying a Foundation

This article provides valuable insight for corporate security leaders on how to strategically address budget issues.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Strategic Master Plan for Corporate Security and KPIs

This chart lists some of the main steps the SEC has identified for obtaining a more comprehensive view of the organization.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

The OPaL+ Assessment Executive Summary

There are three main factors and two cultural attributes that play a role in the success of enhancing or moving programs ahead in any given organization. These form the OPaL+ acronym.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Is it Time for a Corporate Security Maturity Assessment?

The benefits that can be achieved from Capability Maturity Models are not just for IT security.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Faculty Advisor: Are You Providing Security Services or a Comprehensive Program?

We feel we provide a multitude of security services to our organization. Senior management wants us to demonstrate we are not just providing ad hoc services but have an evolved program. Any ideas on how we approach this?
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

What is Security's Role Regarding Drones

The SEC investigated how security practitioners were approaching the influx of UAS use in their respective organizations. Over 20% of respondents reported Security was involved in anti-drone policies.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Making the Case for an Operational Risk Leadership Advisory Council

We find that, despite best intentions, enterprise risk management often fails. Risk mitigation assurance requires that we get beyond one-dimensional, compliance-only, enterprise risk "list" management.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Security’s Role in Corporate Social Responsibility

The Security Executive Council has noticed an uptick in the number of security executives being asked to run corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs for their organizations.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Emerging Issue Awareness

Emerging issue awareness means something different in every company and industry, and upper management is looking for it now more than ever.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Defending Your Budget

A major challenge for security leaders is how to keep the security department functioning effectively as it becomes leaner.
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Faculty Advisor: Benefits and Risks of Using Security Frameworks

We are trying to find a good security framework to manage our security program. Any thoughts?
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Insight on Security Program Strategy & Operations

Faculty Advisor: The Pros and Cons of Managing a Consolidated Security Budget

I may have an opportunity to consolidate security costs for our site locations and international regions into one single budget for which I would have oversight. What are the pros and cons of doing this and, in your opinion, should I?
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