Accountability For Information Security Roles and Responsibilities Part 1 - Joa - Eng - 1019
Accountability For Information Security Roles and Responsibilities Part 1 - Joa - Eng - 1019
Accountability For Information Security Roles and Responsibilities Part 1 - Joa - Eng - 1019
In recent years, information security has evolved recognizing information and related technologies as
from its traditional orientation, focused mainly on critical business assets that need to be governed
technology, to become part of the organization’s and managed in effective ways.6
strategic alignment, enhancing the need for an
aligned business/information security policy.1, 2 Information security is a business enabler that is
Information security is an important part of directly connected to stakeholder trust, either by
organizations since there is a great deal of addressing business risk or by creating value for
information to protect, and it becomes important enterprises, such as a competitive advantage.7
for the long-term competitiveness and survival of Moreover, information security plays a key role in an
organizations. Thus, the information security roles organization’s daily operations because the integrity
are defined by the security they provide to the and confidentiality of its information must be
organizations and must be able to understand the ensured and available to those who need it.8
value proposition of security initiatives, which
leads to better operational responses regarding To tackle information security-related threats and
security threats.3 solutions, it is essential for organizations to have
well-skilled information security professionals.
Organizations and their information storage Many smaller enterprises cannot justify the creation
infrastructures are vulnerable to cyberattacks and of a single post or an information security team
other threats.4 Many of these attacks are highly dedicated to its information security management.
sophisticated and designed to steal confidential
information. Therefore, enterprises that deal with a
lot of sensitive information should be prepared for
these threats because information is one of an
organization’s most valuable assets, and having the
right information at the right time can lead to
greater profitability.5 Enterprises are increasingly
Tiago Catarino
Is currently working in the Portfolio and Investment Department at INCM (Portuguese Mint and Official Printing Office). In the scope
of his professional activity, he develops specialized activities in the field of information systems architectures in several transversal
projects to the organization. His main academic interests are in the areas of enterprise architecture, enterprise engineering,
requirements engineering and enterprise governance, with emphasis on IS architecture and business process engineering.
COBIT® 5 for Information Security is a professional Every organization has different processes,
guide that helps enterprises implement information organizational structures and services provided.
security functions. It can be instrumental in The CISO’s role is still very organization-specific, so
providing more detailed and more practical it can be difficult to apply one framework to various
guidance for information security professionals, enterprises. This difficulty occurs because it is
including the CISO role.13, 14 complicated to align organizations’ processes,
structures, goals or drivers to good practices of the
The Problem framework that are based on processes,
organizational structures or goals. The mapping of
COBIT 5 for Information Security helps security and COBIT to the organization’s business processes is
IT professionals understand, use, implement and among the many challenges that arise when
direct important information security activities. With assessing an enterprise’s process maturity level.
this guidance, security and IT professionals can
make more informed decisions, which can lead to COBIT® 5 has all the roles well defined and
more value creation for enterprises.15 responsible, accountable, consulted and informed
(RACI) charts can be created for each process,
In particular, COBIT 5 for Information Security but different organizations have different roles
recommends a set of processes that are and levels of involvement in information
instrumental in guiding the CISO’s role and provides security responsibility.
examples of information types that are common in
an information security governance and ArchiMate is the standard notation for the graphical
management context. Furthermore, it provides a list modeling of enterprise architecture (EA). Many
2. Model ➜
organization’s
EA
3. Information ➜
type
mapping
4. Processes ➜
output
mapping
5. Key ➜
practices
mapping
6. Role ➜
mapping
COBIT 5 for Information Security can be modeled the CISO is responsible for originating, defined in
with regard to the scope of the CISO’s role, using COBIT 5 for Information Security, will first be
ArchiMate as the modeling language. Figure 4 modeled using the ArchiMate notation. Such
shows an example of the mapping between COBIT 5 modeling is based on the Principles, Policies and
for Information Security and ArchiMate’s concepts Frameworks and the Information and
regarding the definition of the CISO’s role. The Organizational Structures enablers of COBIT 5 for
semantic matching between the definitions and Information Security.
explanations of these columns contributes to the
proposed COBIT 5 for Information Security to COBIT 5 for Information Security’s processes and
ArchiMate mapping. related practices for which the CISO is responsible
will then be modeled. Those processes and
The definition of the CISO’s role, the CISO’s practices are:
business functions and the information types that
Stakeholder needs are influenced by a number of drivers, e.g., strategy A driver is defined as
(name)
changes, a changing business and regulatory environment, and new something that creates,
Stakeholder
technologies. motivates and fuels the
driver
change in an organization.
Value creation is the main governance objective of an enterprise, achieved A goal is defined as an end
when the three underlying objectives (benefits realization, risk optimization state that a stakeholder
and resource optimization) are all balanced. intends to achieve. (name)
Stakeholder
needs Stakeholder needs drive the governance objective of value creation:
• Benefits realization
• Risk optimization
• Resource optimization
The translation of the enterprise’s mission from a statement of intention into A goal is defined as an end
performance targets and results state that a stakeholder (name)
Enterprise
intends to achieve.
goals
Enablers include processes, organizational structures and information, and A goal is defined as an end
for each enabler, a set of specific relevant goals can be defined in support of state that a stakeholder (name)
Enabler goals the IT-related goals. intends to achieve.
A statement describing the desired outcome of a process. An outcome A goal is defined as an end
can be an artifact, a significant change of a state or a significant capability state that a stakeholder (name)
Process goals improvement of other processes. intends to achieve.
A statement describing the desired outcome of a process, regarding A goal is defined as an end
Information- information security. An outcome can be an artifact, a significant change of a state that a stakeholder (name)
security- state or a significant capability improvement of other processes. intends to achieve.
specific goal
Identifying the stakeholder of information is essential to optimize the A business object is defined
development and distribution of information throughout the enterprise. as a passive element that has
Information (name)
Example of information types include: relevance from a business
types
• Information security strategy perspective.
• Information security review reports
Identifying the stakeholder of information is essential to optimize the A business function is defined
development and distribution of information throughout the enterprise. as a behavior element that (name)
Business
groups behavior based on a
function
chosen set of criteria (typically
required business resources
and/or competencies).
Anyone who has a responsibility for, an expectation from or some other A business actor is defined
interest in the enterprise, e.g., shareholders, users, government, suppliers, as an organizational entity (name)
Stakeholder customers and the public that is capable of performing
behavior.
Prescribed or expected behavior associated with a particular position or A business role is defined
status in a group or organization; a job or a position that has specific set as the responsibility for (name)
Role of expectations attached to it. performing a specific behavior
to which an actor can be
assigned.
The process work products/artifacts considered necessary to support A business object is defined
process’s operation. as a passive element that has
Inputs and (name)
relevance from a business
outputs
perspective.
• Evaluate, Direct and Monitor (EDM) EDM03.03 The modeling of the processes’ practices for
Monitor risk management which the CISO is responsible is based on the
Processes enabler.
• Align, Plan and Organize (APO) APO01.04
Communicate management objectives and
Finally, the key practices for which the CISO should
direction
be held responsible will be modeled. Such modeling
• APO12.01 Collect data is based on the Organizational Structures enabler.
As an output of this step, viewpoints created to
• APO12.06 Respond to risk
model the selected concepts from COBIT 5 for Step 3—Information Types Mapping
Information Security using ArchiMate will be the For this step, the inputs are information types,
input for the detection of an organization’s contents business functions and roles involved—as-is (step
to properly implement the CISO’s role. 2) and to-be (step 1). The output is the information
types gap analysis.
Step 2—Model Organization’s EA
The inputs for this step are the CISO to-be business In the third step, the goal is to map the
functions, processes’ outputs, key practices and organization’s information types to the information
information types, documentation, and informal that the CISO is responsible for producing. With this,
meetings. The outputs are organization as-is it will be possible to identify which information
business functions, processes’ outputs, key types are missing and who is responsible for them.
practices and information types.
If there is not a connection between the
In this step, it is essential to represent the organization’s information types and the
organization’s EA regarding the definition of the information types that the CISO is responsible for
CISO’s role. Such modeling aims to identify the originating, this serves as a detection of an
organization’s as-is status and is based on the information types gap.
preceded figures of step 1, i.e., all viewpoints
represented will have the same structure. This step Step 4—Processes Outputs Mapping
aims to represent all the information related to the The inputs are the processes’ outputs and roles
definition of the CISO’s role in COBIT 5 for involved—as-is (step 2) and to-be (step 1). The
Information Security to determine what processes’ output is the gap analysis of processes’ outputs.
outputs, business functions, information types and
key practices exist in the organization. The fourth step’s goal is to map the processes’
outputs of the organization to the COBIT 5 for
This step begins with modeling the organization’s Information Security processes for which the CISO
business functions and types of information is responsible. With this, it will be possible to
originated by them (which are related to the identify which processes’ outputs are missing and
business functions and information types of COBIT who is delivering them.
5 for Information Security for which the CISO is
responsible) using the ArchiMate notation. A missing connection between the processes’
outputs of the organization and the processes’
The organization’s processes and practices, which outputs for which the CISO is responsible to
are related to the processes of COBIT 5 for produce and/or deliver indicates a processes’
output gap.