The Hindu Business Line : Return on negligence could be disastrous, says security expert

IT is estimated that 60 per cent of identity theft is from within an enterprise and the return on negligence (RON), a term coined by security experts, could be disastrous for companies, according to a security expert.

The Consulting Director, CA Technology Services for India and SAARC, Mr Rajendra Dhavle, said analysts have estimated that without proper identity and access management, associated costs could rise to over $600 per user per year.

This is because security is directly linked with the organisation's productivity.

Mr Dhavle told newspersons here that, "There can be a great temptation to do nothing and put off the deployment of an identity and access management solution. However, this approach can store up problems for the future."

Lately, it is predicted that companies that do not take to the electronic approach for their products and services, will lose out to those who are geared up for transactions on the Web.

This means banks and financial services providers and telecom carriers will need to adopt integrated system of business processes, policies and technologies.

This enables organisations to facilitate and control their users' access to critical online applications and resources, while protecting confidential personal and business information from unauthorised users.

In a security system of an enterprise, there is this interesting concept called 17/11 where 17 refers to various aspects of an employer identity management related information and nine refers to similar information even when he is no longer an employee.

This is a complex matter which IT system administrators need to manage to ensure that an employee does not have access to critical company information once he leaves the organisation.

Citing the Gartner study, Mr Dhavle said by 2005, the complexity of integrating the components of identity and access management solutions will cause 60 per cent of enterprises to choose product suites that are owned or licensed by and supported through one vendor.

This is where enterprises would have to address their security as an integrated approach where CA has about 19.1 per cent share.