To Add To Your List Of Decision Makers: Digital Risk Officer
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
The Digital Risk Officer (DRO) is emerging as a corporate role. A Gartner survey found that by the 2017, one-third of large enterprises will have someone in this or a comparable role.
A CIO Insight slideshow provides background on the role of DRO, as well as details from the Gartner survey. The CIO Insight articles states: DROs will combine business acumen with technical and security knowledge and will need new skills beyond those typically required of risk and security officers. “
The slideshow points out DROs will need to know about — or have trusted advisors in the areas of — network and endpoint security, security concerns in the integration of IT and operational technology, embedded software and system security, machine-to-machine security, identity and access management across the business where digital identities are related to civil and social identities, and physical security management.
“Digital risk officers will require a mix of business acumen and understanding with sufficient technical knowledge to assess and make recommendations for appropriately addressing digital business risk,” Paul Proctor, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, states in the survey press release. “Many traditional security officers will change their titles to digital risk and security officers, but without material change in their scope, mandate, and skills they will not fulfill this role in its entirety.”
In a Cloud Security Alliance Industry Blog post, Michael Piramoon, director of analyst relations at Accellion points to the rapidly growing number of BYOD (bring-your-own-device) devices and special-purpose Internet of Things (IoT) devices connected to enterprise networks as contributing to the need for the role. He states: “The advent of the digital risk officer is another sign of just how vast are the changes taking in place in enterprise IT. Connected corporations are becoming hyperconnected as the number of devices multiplies. Services are moving to the cloud, and access is moving from cubicle-tethered desktops to smartphones and tablets. Networks, many now running at speeds of 10G or faster, are supporting more devices and more types of data than ever before.”
DROs, says Piramoon, will not only be focused on security in this environment, but also on contributing to the productivity and efficiency of the company’s workforce.
The report of Gartner’s survey is available on Gartner's website at http://www.gartner.com/doc/2771823.