Security Professionals Need New Skills
by Gerald Trites, FCA

At a recent Gartner Industry Summit the point was made that security is increasingly being built into IS architecture, and that in future there will be less need for human intervention in the security process. It was also pointed out that the role of auditors will change, with more of their procedures automated. This will mean that routine audit procedures will be done more often by people with lower skills than previously. It also means there will be a demand for more IS auditors with the analytical and communications skills to make sense of the results and communicate them to management and executives in the company. This will be a challenging role to play.

The trend towards automation of the audit function has been clear for some time. What Gartner is forecasting is a major accceleration of this process and a significant shift in the way it is delivered, through mainstream architecture rather than through add-ons and special audit software as in the past. No doubt, however, there will be some demand for analytical software.

IS auditors will be an important part of the management team in future and the increased automation will mean greater involvment in system design and selection as the importance of security continues to permeate into the C-Suite.

A summary of the Gartner Event is found in this linked article.