ISACA identifies top trends for IT managers in 2012

Ken Vander Wal, international president of ISACA, explains that 'Big Data' – which describes not only the large volumes of data being collected by enterprises in an increasingly connected world, but also their diverse sources – is "going to evolve out of its 'shiny new object' status in 2012". IT leaders, he says, "will need to figure out how to coax order out of the chaos from all those zeroes and ones, as well as optimise ROI and manage data privacy". For him, handling this major trend is about using analytics across many projects to gain greater insight, performing ad hoc analysis to support key areas of risk, and defining measures of success along the way – mirroring the the ISACA white paper Data Analytics—A Practical Approach (www.isaca.org/data-analytics). Moving on to the invasion of employee-owned consumer devices in industrial networks, ISACA notes that smartphones and tablet devices are typically difficult for IT to secure and manage – even though they may bring business benefits. "BYOD [Bring Your Own Device] is a fast-moving train," warns Robert Stroud, past international vice president of ISACA and vice president, Innovation and Strategy, CA Technologies. "IT departments have to jump on it or risk getting left at the station... Organisations that embrace the BYOD trend need to consider a two-pronged approach to security by focusing on both the device and the data it can access," he adds. Stroud believes that this year will bring an increased focus on the mobile device and its access to information. "IT will need to answer questions such as, 'Who is accessing corporate information, when and from what device? Is the device trustworthy?'" states Stroud. Finally, on the subject of mobile, John Pironti, security advisor at ISACA and president of IP Architects, advises that growth in mobile equals growth in threats. Pironti includes everything from smartphones and tablet computers to laptops and (USB) memory sticks. "2012 will see a sharp increase in attacks targeted at mobile devices, either to exploit them or use them as an access point to corporate networks," he suggests. ISACA advises that information security managers need to create an easily understood policy that protects against data leakage and malware. That means some work: in ISACA's recent BYOD survey of 1,224 US consumers, 16% of respondents said their organisations did not have a policy prohibiting or limiting personal activities on work devices, and another 20% did not know if one existed.