Cop It Sweet

O'Loughlin is often surprised how his experiences as a police detective - and the law enforcement mind-set - continue to help him in his current day-to-day with Ernst & Young.

"The ex-copper has the experience of speaking to people across society - from judges to street criminals," he says. "He knows human nature. He understands the concepts of incident response. He has an investigator's mind. He knows how to collect evidence that must later withstand judicial scrutiny. It puts him a long way ahead of the IT expert who simply doesn't realise that you have to think like a thief to catch a thief." The Australian CSO who asked to remain anonymous says September 11, Bali, the war in Iraq and the civil unrest now evident on Australian streets present corporate leaders with dramatic new business imperatives.

"We're faced with threats now that once seemed fantasy," he says. "Security must move from a focus on insurance policies and infrastructure protection to become a core element in strategic business planning. It's what Booz Allen Hamilton call 'interdependence risk'. They say that no organisation is an island in today's global business environment and they warn that terrorists will continue to exploit the soft underbelly of our interdependent economies. "This reality has forced entire industries to restructure. We have to make our people feel safer; have contingency plans to counter predictable and unpredictable events; safeguard networks that extend beyond the company; and make it all cost-effective - as if you can put a price on safety.

"Some days it all makes me feel more like an army general than a business executive," he says.

Security Consolidation

Pros

+ Provides better protection with one coordinated threat response plan + Saves money by eliminating redundant functions + Gets an integrated view of your security landscape + Improves security effectiveness by looking at both IT and physical angles

Cons

- Doesn't make sense for every company - Requires a mix of both physical and IT skill sets - Complicates the reporting structure - Moves security employees outside their regular environment and reduces their efficiency