Why is an understanding of ethics important for security executives?
Five years ago, the scandals at Enron, Tyco, Rite-Aid, ImClone, Arthur Andersen, and WorldCom set the stage for the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July 2002. As a result, the risks to all organizations have grown dramatically. This is clearly reflected in prosecutor activism across all industries, including Wall Street, mutual funds, pharmaceuticals, insurance companies, and the accounting profession, to name a few. As risk managers, security professionals need to understand these risks and the environment in which business is operating. In addition, more current issues, such as privacy, domestic spying, boardroom leaks and investigatory pre-texting, have the attention of the Congress and the Department of Justice. The H-P scandal seems to be the current lightning rod for all these issues. The profile of security executives has been raised dramatically. They are responsible for physical property, personal safety, and physical assets. They are risk managers so they understand that
