[ISN] How to Succeed in a Two-Faced IT Security Job Market

http://www.csoonline.com/article/501117/How_to_Succeed_in_a_Two_Faced_IT_Security_Job_Market

By Bill Brenner
Senior Editor
CSO
September 01, 2009

More companies have hired CSOs and CISOs in response to an 
ever-increasing regulatory compliance load. They are spending less on 
outsourcing as economic conditions prompt them to handle more security 
tasks in-house.

On the surface, such a trend would look like a great opportunity for IT 
security job seekers. But according to several IT security 
practitioners, that's not exactly the case. Still, there are lessons job 
seekers could learn from current events that could ultimately help their 
careers along.

In a recent series of conversations with CSOonline, IT security 
practitioners said they have indeed seen evidence more companies are 
bringing in CSO-level people to confront a dense web of security 
regulations and the growing threat of data security breaches [see 
Lessons of ChoicePoint, 4 Years Later for examples].

At the same time, they acknowledge an economy mired in recession is 
forcing companies to bring in-house a wider array of security tasks they 
once entrusted to third-party providers.

"When I first started working here, we were using a mix of vendors [to 
handle certain security tasks], but today, since I'm here and because of 
the economy, we are trying to do more in house," said Mauricio Angee, 
senior manager, IT security and compliance and CSO at Universal Orlando. 
In the beginning there was no security staff per se, and he was a 
one-man operation. But now he has four security specialists working 
under him, handling such tasks as firewall and IDS management.

[...]


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