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Why good business is also good security

This year's event has seen more products, companies and people voted on than any other. For example, just one of our Readers' Trust awards saw 291 companies nominating 963 products.

Not only will the publication, readers and judges from groups such as KPMG and Frost & Sullivan be deciding which products or companies are the best, they will also decide who the leading professionals in infosec are. From Best Information Security Team to CSO of the Year, IT security folks like you, and the security programs implemented will be held up as examples of how infosec should be done in corporations and government agencies alike.

To further celebrate the people, teams and their activities, the March edition will include features on some of the winners and highlights about the finalists.

The reason for such coverage is simple. It is critical for us to acknowledge when infosec professionals are setting the bar. It's important to note when these pros and the teams working for them are establishing infosec programs that should be followed, or deploying security products across their organizations that will not only secure their intellectual property, but ease employees' jobs. Failing to do so will only help to perpetuate the impression that security rules, plans and tools impede business rather than enable it.

All one has to do it read this month's cover story by West Coast bureau chief Marcia Savage to understand how a professional's efforts in infosec can impact an organization for the better. The labors of US Air Force CIO John Gilligan to overcome the dreaded patching problem will not only be felt in his own agency; his work to improve the security of software that legions of companies and agencies purchase has implications for the industry as a whole.

Even right now, according to SC's cover story, Microsoft and the Air Force are working together to develop secure configurations for the Redmond giant's popular software products. They intend to achieve this by using benchmarks from the nonprofit Center for Internet Security and data from federal sources.

So, when you read about folks such as John Gilligan or the finalists and winners in the SC Magazine Awards, it will be clearer than ever that infosecurity is far from a roadblock to good business. It simply is good business... for everyone.

Illena Armstrong is the U.S. editor

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