Just because the security budget doesn’t usually go toward things that earn the organization a visible return on investment doesn’t mean the security budgeting process should be pushed out of the way, and delegated down to each group for their own analysis. Here’s another way to look at security budgeting.

Suppose each child in your family received a set of collectible coins for their birthday. You tell them that the coins are special, and will someday be very valuable. They should take care of them. Each child does what they think is right. One puts it in a locked cabinet, another puts it into secret compartment under the back of their desk, and the other puts it high on a closet shelf.

Are they equally secure? Not really. Now, let’s say you have to find a safe place to hide a surprise gift for one of the siblings. Would you give it to one of the others and ask them to keep it in a safe place? No, you would probably assess the value of the item and the value of the surprise. You’d make sure that whomever you delegated security duty to had the means to properly protect it.

You should try to remember that what you think is important is rarely the same as what others think. If you are delegating responsibility for protecting the bottom line, you need to make sure the budget is there, as well as the direction.

Here’s a link to a new survey I’ve set up to get an idea how people perceive the security budgeting process within their organizations.

To take the Security Budgeting survey click HERE.

To view other surveys, please visit the Polls Archive page.