This week saw the introduction of our June feature stories to the website. Which ones were the most popular? Get your weekend reading list ready with the Week in Review!

The Security Leader: Beyond Guns, Guards and Gates: By Security Editor Diane Ritchey

                “Security and the security leader is all about providing strategies that promote the competitive advantage of a company, because that leads to shareholder value,” explains Jeff Berkin, Senior Vice President and CSO of CACI International. “Rather than being focused entirely on the detail level of projects, the CSO role is often more strategic in terms of helping the company identify and exploit a competitive advantage through better security.”

Managing the CFO Relationship for Strategic Security Advantage: By Jill Knesek

                Security is no longer just a hot topic among security professionals. It’s crossed the boundaries into mainstream media and political debates. You can’t watch the news or read a newspaper or magazine without hearing about cyber threats, personal information breaches or risk management. But that doesn’t mean that company executives have opened their wallets to each and every security project their security staff submits – if only it were that easy. 

Virtual or Traditional? How Either Guarding Solution Can Solve Business Problems: By Diane Ritchey

                Virtual Guard services such as the one used by Goodwill Industries are catching on in use. They offer a business an attractive alternative to a traditional guard service. They work around the clock; they are efficient; they offer eyes that are everywhere; and they can provide eyewitness testimony through recorded videos, whereas a live guard can only rely on memory. They can also take away the threat of injury or loss of life. They are not for everyone, and their offerings do not mean that traditional security guard forces are  outdated or antiquated (please see related information within this article); yet they can offer safety, efficiency and cost savings.

Access Control: In With The New: By Security Associate Editor Claire Meyer

It’s old, it’s outdated, it’s archaic – call it what you will. When the moment arrives when your card reader refuses to let you, your staff, or someone else who is authorized into your organization, it’s time for a change. How that change is done and how much it will cost is the hard part. But there’s good news: a switch might be on a smaller scale, like the Falls Church City Public School System in Virginia.

Metrics: The Evaluation of Access Control and Identification: By Ben Scaglione

Using metrics provides a quantifiable way to measure the effectiveness of security programs and processes. As the popularity of metrics has increased over the past few years so has the number and type of metrics that are used to evaluate efficiencies. However, without proper vetting, metrics may not effectively evaluate the process or program that is being measured. Believe it or not, the design and application of metrics is not as easy as it seems. Metrics must be chosen carefully to ensure they measure exactly what they were intended to measure. 

In Other News…

LinkedIn, eHarmony Data Breaches May Affect Millions

ASIS International Announces 35^th Anniversary of Certification Program

Monitoring Employees’ Digital Behavior is a Rising Trend

More than 1 Million Shoplifters Apprehended in 2011

Chicago Man Found in Possession of $1M of Stolen Goods

Join in the conversation! What did you like? What didn't you like? What do you want to learn more about? Leave us a comment or shoot me an email at meyerc@bnpmedia.com.