Book Review: Valuing Security

Elsevier; Elsevier.com; 226 pages; $99.95 

At first glance, this book seems overly complex, but once the reader engages with the author’s intent, the information gleaned is valuable and insightful. Measuring and Communicating Security’s Value takes corporate security management to the highest level of engagement within the organization. It encourages the chief security officer to be part of the C-suite by contributing to the business’s success as a business expert, not just a security subject matter expert.  

This book shows how the security department can achieve a return on investment, and it takes the broader view that the security department and CSO should become full partners in business strategy and enterprise risk management.  

Through graphs and illustrations, the author shows how security departments can be measured with respect to physical security, IT security, organizational matters, business integrity, business continuity, and other key factors that help a security program add value to all departments within a large organization. 

This book is advanced reading that should be coupled with other publications on senior security management objectives and strategies within corporations. I learned a great deal from this book and I think that other CSOs will as well. 

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Reviewer: Dan Popowich, CPP, is a member of the CSO Center for Leadership & Development and the ASIS Security Services Council. He is an assistant vice president of ASIS Region 6A (Canada), and CEO of Commissionaires BC.