Building a strategic security organisation

In everyone's day-to-day jobs there is constant need to deal with current and newly detected matters. This is now a world of immediacy, driven by the cadence of the business and its needs. These concerns should not be ignored, as failing to deal with these issues would not bode well for the future. It is essential that the gears are kept spinning. The challenge for any security organisation is to identify its short-term tactical requirements, while developing longer-term strategic needs. Once done, the differences can be accounted for and strides can be made toward a desired future state. This paper highlights several steps that the author and his team have taken in their own journey. There is no magic answer, each organisation will have its own unique challenges. Nevertheless, some of the approaches to building a strategic security organisation described in this paper are applicable to all organisations, irrespective of their size.