CISOs expectations from enterprise security vendors in 2016

There is no silver bullet for security. Breaches continue to happen despite the latest and ‘best of breed’ solutions and products from security vendors. Ironically because of the dynamic nature of security landscape, no technology OEM assures 100% guarantee on their security arsenal. CISOs and their team often are at the receiving end of the various security pitch by the tech OEMs’ teams. And countering the hype of newer technologies is often a tough task for the enterprises. We spoke to CISOs of Indian Inc. to know about their key expectations from the security vendors in 2016. Samarendra Kumar, Head- Group Information Security, InterGlobe Enterprises I have been straightforward and candid about the solution choices with the OEMs and not encountered any challenges. When we opted for DLP, I explained the reasons clearly to the ‘second in line’ vendor on the choice of other vendor, and they were fine with it. A comprehensive comparison is a must before making the final choice because OEMs will sell everything. It is the capability of your IT team and business plans to build and extract the best out of the security product. If you communicate the requisite knowledge of the subject to the OEMs, then hype does not impact much. And OEMs appreciate that with happy mind.  Rishi Rajpal, Director – IT Governance (Privacy, Security, Compliance and Continuity), Concentrix Corporation “Innovation should be core of every security vendor, staying ahead of the threat and combating it effectively though constant innovation should be the key deliverable. They need to exhibit liability sharing by being more open to share liabilities of data breaches directly attributable to their products this will ensure successfully partnership and accountability. As security professionals we face lot of heat in terms of performance compromise while building layers of security on endpoints. Hence OEMs should focus on becoming agent less and transparent and still offer the optimal level of security.”  Sujoy Brahmachari, Sr. General Manager – Information Systems & CISO, Hero MotoCorp “Every second day, there is a threat abut more importantly there is a security solution to that. This is an ongoing process that keeps you on your toes and geared up at all times. An important aspect is the lack of good support mechanism from most of the well-established international security vendors in India. They have excellent sales people pitching on product features etcetera that are useful to us. But they don’t have adequate local people when it comes to technical issues. They depend on their headquarters staff outside India. This leads to a sufficient time lapse for an urgent issue wherein security is a highly dynamic area.”  Yogesh Gupta is executive editor at IDG Media. You can reach him at yogesh_gupta@idgindia.com or follow him at @yogsyogi1