In July’s column, I provided an overview of the concept of personal branding and why it is relevant to security professionals looking to further both their reputation and marketability. This month I want to expand on the topic by addressing specific steps you can take to better identify your individual brand.

Every security professional should plan their career objectives and develop a broad range of experience and competencies. This is a proven method for achieving your career goals. Development of a personal brand is equally important and should occur simultaneously. It will positively affect both your reputation and your marketability.

The most common question asked by candidates when they are considering a new position is “What does the compensation look like?”

While legislators have passed a multitude of statutes to aid in the protection of our economic interests pertaining to data systems – non-physical assets and privacy – frequently any course of action is still determined by the concept of monetary loss and treated as if someone was stealing or damaging physical assets, or as in the case of the Stored Communications Act (SCA), creating a statue that has been described as dense and confusing to even legal scholars.

Constant vigilance in the marketplace is vital to understanding, responding to and mitigating incidents that can have a devastating impact on your enterprise’s brand and reputation.

Probably the most important first step an organization should take in developing their BCP/COP program is to conduct an inventory of all of the enterprise’s processes, assets and resources (PAR). No one has the time or resources to boil the ocean, so once the inventory has been completed, the next step involves prioritizing the PAR list from the most critical to the least important.

Whether you are in a private or public enterprise, developing a solid base of intelligence on new and emerging technologies is a critical element in developing strategic and tactical responses to maintain operational continuity.

Monitoring emerging trends, customer likes and dislikes, and understanding unmet customer needs can determine how rapid a rate of incline or decline your business experiences. Companies spend millions of dollars conducting surveys of customers, potential customers, industry experts and key opinion leaders to determine if their products or services effectively meet, exceed or miss market expectations.

The economic horizon was showing signs of new life and your business-improving Orders were up, but you have concerns that you have stretched the length of your supply chain