Final Words

In the computer world, time is everything! CPU time, memory access time, time to market, and so on everything moves incredibly fast. In 30 milliseconds, a signal traveling at the speed of light can race from coast to coast of the United States. Sometimes, I think that's the speed at which some managers move from job to job or company to company.

Managers are looking for promotions, larger salaries, stock options, and so on. In truth, you can't really blame them. I can't honestly say that I would pass up a VP slot and a ton of stock options if they were offered.

In today's business market, most people don't work for one company for life. That can lead to short-term thinking. Reach your goals, get your bonus, and move on to the next opportunity. That's why any company that truly cares about data security needs to set yearly goals. To keep those goals from being trampled by executives running through, security goals need to be tied to executive goals and bonuses.

One of those goals needs to be protecting the budget for training. While IT budgets soared in 2000 (with a 92 percent increase in the number of firms spending over $1 million on security), much of that was directed to earlier projects put on hold during the Y2K crisis. It remains to be seen whether the homeland security initiatives that have followed the events of September 11, 2001, will address computer security training in any meaningful way. Although I'm hopeful, the historical response of both government agencies and private companies has been to invest in new equipment and technology development rather than in the training necessary to maintain security.