Seventy-two percent of executives find performance is suffering because their companies take an outdated and excessively restrictive approach to information security, according to CEB, a member-based advisory company.
CEB maintains that accessing and leveraging information is essential in improving productivity and growth, particularly given today's collaborative work environment. Despite this, as companies continue to follow outdated policies limiting access, it can cost as much as $20 million in performance loss each year for large organizations.
With these results in mind, CEB says employers must approach information risk sharing from a management outlook rather than a reduction outlook if they are to improve productivity and reach organizational goals.
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Eighty-one percent of executive respondents agree that new uses of information are critical to growth while 93 percent of employee respondents say they have violated information security policies in order to perform more effectively. In light of this, CEB says employers should see access to risks and rewards of information as a built-in cost of conducting business.
"Most risk managers mistakenly believe their role is to reduce risk," said Jeremy Bergsman, managing director of CEB. "Instead, the primary goal of information risk management must evolve from risk reduction to maximizing the business value of information.
"Business unit leaders need to manage information risk differently to taking accountability for decision-making. Risk management functions, including information security, legal and enterprise risk management, must work jointly to define the scope to be managed and the set of activities necessary for business leaders to successfully share responsibility."
In an effort to drive productivity and growth, business leaders can manage risk effectively by no longer focusing on risk reduction, CEB says. Rather, business leaders should allow business unit leaders to share the risk management process and redefine information risk management as maximizing the business value of information.
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