"IT Projects Should Be Aligned With Business Objectives"

Securing personally identifiable information (PII) is a top concern facing business and technology executives this year, according to a survey of more than 3,100 professionals in more than 95 countries. Conducted by ISACA, a nonprofit association that serves more than 86,000 IT governance professionals worldwide, the study identified the top seven business issues impacted by technology.

The top seven business issues ranked by respondents include regulatory compliance, specifically protecting PII and implementing transaction monitoring; enterprise-based management and IT governance; information security management; disaster recovery/business continuity; IT value management; challenges of managing IT risks; and compliance with financial reporting.

“The cost of losing or compromising the integrity of PII is leading to a renewed focus on information security,” said Greg Grocholski, chair of ISACA’s Assurance Committee and senior finance director at Dow Chemical. “The survey shows that 81 percent of the 1,600 respondents who named information security management as the third concern said that security risks are not fully known or are only partially assessed using technology.”

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Enterprises continue to make increasingly large-scale investments in IT, making it more challenging to ensure compliance with international regulations. According to the survey, this effort is improved when technology becomes an integral part of the business.

“Keeping on top of legislative and regulatory requirements is a critical responsibility made more difficult because compliance efforts are still operating in ‘project’ mode and have not yet been embedded into business processes,” said Anthony Noble, member of the ISACA Assurance Committee and vice president of IT audit at Viacom. “IT projects still lack alignment with business objectives at many organisations, and as a result, they are unable to realise business benefits.”

The study also revealed that many enterprises are still not adequately prepared for disasters. According to the results, 80 percent of the 1,500 ISACA members who made business continuity management the fourth issue said that their business managers and owners are not fully aware of their responsibilities to maintain the ability to perform critical business functions in the event of a disaster.