Security professionals are rapidly recognising the importance of formal information and technology risk frameworks, security body ISACA has reported in the wake of the launch of a new online version of the COBIT 5 IT governance platform.
An ISACA survey of 1245 professionals from 50 countries, all of whom downloaded the online version of the COBIT 5 framework, found that 78 percent of respondents had found having effective IT governance in place had become more valuable in the wake of changes in the business and technology landscape over the last 12 months.
Fully 73 percent said the framework had helped them improve integration of business and IT, while 60 percent flagged its benefits in improving risk management. Some 49 percent said the framework helped improve their ability to identify gaps, while 45 percent said it had given them greater visibility with the board of directors.
Impetus for improved IT governance was spread throughout the organisations, with 28 percent saying their internal IT governance champion was the CIO. Other champions included the IT director (17 percent), IT manager (13 percent), CEO (8 percent), IT staff members (7 percent), and board members (6 percent).
Some 12 percent of surveyed organisations said they had no internal IT governance champion, while 9 percent said the driver for IT governance came from other employees.
Changes in the champions of IT governance efforts were driving different ways of implementing IT projects as security came to the fore, ISACA international president Rob Stroud recently told CSO Australia.
“A fundamental change I'm seeing in the industry today is security teams attempting to get involved right up at the project initiation session,” he said. “They're attempting to understand the issues, map the security on the way through, and lead to a less complicated environment on the other end.”
“It's going to take less time to get there as we transition our businesses – but while we're getting better at it, it's not quick enough.”
COBIT 5 has been purchased or downloaded by more than 145,000 people, with 6600 COBIT 5 Foundation exams taken between January and July 2014. This represented growth of 207 percent on a year earlier – reflecting satisfaction with the platform that ISACA attributed to satisfaction ratings suggesting that 93 percent of uses would recommend COBIT 5.
The online version of the standard allows the responsible, accountable, consulted, informed (RACI) planner and goals cascade tool to be personalised for a particularly enterprise. The standard is designed to guide users through the selection of enterprise, IT-related and enabler goals based on stakeholder needs.
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