IT Security and the Impact of CIO Roles - Essay Example

Information security threats have made governments enact information communications laws to set requirements and standards that an information system must meet to perform effectively. For any information system to be operational, government-mandated compliances need to be undertaken by the chief information officer (CIO) and government officers. For a system to pass these security compliances it must meet the criteria set; the system boundaries for the hardware, software, users, and interactions with the environment must be clearly defined to assess any threats. Therefore, a CIO must provide a plan of action for the system and also state any contingency measures needed in the case of a security threat. Moreover, the chief information officer then gets certification and accreditation from the government once this is achieved (Enloe, 2002).

Information systems are required to be secure to facilitate business success and their resilience in the changing information society. This means that a CIO ought to ensure that the system is secure enough to deliver vital information and services at the right time with no compromise. This is because security systems increase public confidence and trust in the organization and its products or services. Information security also ensures that the performance of all the stakeholders in the organizations from management to junior staff is effective (Bowen, Chew, and Hash, 2007). In addition, security also reduces the chances of risk to the organization and protects the integrity of the information or data stored in the organization.

In the design of an information system, the CIO needs to be aware of information security elements, which must be in line with government-mandated compliance. Moreover, considering the security planning of a system a CIO needs to know who accesses the system at any time, and thus, the role of an information system officer in the system needs to be understood and clearly defined (Enloe, 2002). The authorizing officers in the organization and other users including the management need to be issued with access codes for authorization. Through this, he will track and know who accessed the system at what time and which information was accessed or modified with the use of these codes. The CIO should provide the management with the capital estimates required in running and maintaining the whole system and the time required to change or upgrade the system. In addition, he must conduct awareness and training campaigns for the whole organization. This is to educate the users of a system on the different types of security threats present and how to evade them. Thus, a CIO is required to conduct a risk assessment for the organization's management, and explain to the personnel and management how the system will meet the organization’s mission and goals (Enloe, 2002).

To this effect, the CIO must design a system that provides as stated in NIST: “Information security protection from unauthorized access, use or disclosure, disruption and modification of information”. The system must also comply with the standards set up for policies, procedures, and guidelines by national law and legislation. The CIO is also responsible for developing and maintaining agency-wide information security programs, policies, and control techniques for the organization's systems. Moreover, he is required to develop a disaster recovery management program, to state the procedures for the recovery of pertinent information regarding the organization (NIST, n.d.; California Office of Information Security, 2008).

Therefore, in light of the responsibilities pressure, and threats to the systems CIO roles and skills are changing, and for him to succeed in in future and presently, he will be required to possess communication, management, and strategic skills. Strategic skills would assist them to understand the organization's program areas, business needs, evolving technologies present at the time, and security control measures in the organization's system. He will also use strategic skills to identify risks in the organization and devise measures to mitigate these risks, including risk assessment programs and disaster recovery and management programs.  Moreover, in the future, they will be required to have management and communication skills to effectively manage and control the risk presented in the system (California Office of Information Security, 2008). Management skills such as coordinating, controlling, directing, and staffing are necessary for ensuring and facilitating security to the system is maintained, while good communication skills allow for proper communication, and in report writing to management on the current status of the system and future changes (Bowen, Chew, and Hash, 2007).

In conclusion, the importance of information security cannot be stressed enough considering organizations are spending millions of dollars in developing secure systems. This is because a security system ensures that the operations of a system meet the required government requirements and business needs for competitive advantage. Thus, concerning the pressure on the CIO to ensure secure systems which have dynamically changed their roles, they should aim to possess communication, strategic, and management skills to effectively handle these responsibilities in the future.