The last major way SOX can help security teams is by clearly justifying the need for more proactive security measures, such as vulnerability scanning and attaining threat intelligence. These measures will help you fortify your critical business systems from existing and emerging threats. Implementing robust scanning and intelligence programs will enable you to gain a better understanding of your assets' threat exposure level and provide this information to management along with the actual incidents and associated responses. Demonstrating effective proactive security measures will help build an additional layer of trust as executives see their security teams taking steps to reduce the likelihood of attacks against critical business systems, rather than merely maintaining a typical reactive policy.


All security teams should view the guidelines set forth by Sarbanes-Oxley as an opportunity. Implementing the controls and processes recommended by this Act will lead to a more secure business environment. More importantly, SOX raises executives' awareness of their critical business systems and the security surrounding these systems. This enables the security team to frequently demonstrate their value as a key enabler of business. This results in the executives gaining confidence in their security team, which will help future budgetary and personnel needs. Whether or not you have to comply with SOX, security teams should take a long look at this legislation and formulate a strategy to use it as a way to gain much needed visibility at the highest levels in the enterprise.