A majority of security professionals report ethics and values, or integrity and trust, to be one of their top five competencies. This is unsurprising as these are expected traits given the nature of the security profession. Interestingly, a minority place business acumen in their top five.
Similarly, companies that weave strong ethics and integrity policies into their core values tend to financially outperform other corporations over time. Key elements of these programs are a code of expected conduct surrounding behavior of employees including corporate leadership, suppliers and potential vendors.