The Cloud - beyond Security

Des has been working in the Information Risk Management industry for over 17years. His background and skill set ranges from the technical to the non-technicalthrough forensics and pen-testing to risk assessment and corporate governance.This allows him to interface between the technologists and the business to facilitateeffective communication and understanding between them; achieving compliance inline with business goals whilst still providing effective information risk management.Previous experience encompasses compliance programmes for HMG and FTSE 100companies relating to the majority of legislation and regulation; including the IAMaturity Model, Security Policy Framework, Hannigan Review, Data Protection Act1998, FSA guidelines, Payment Card Data Industry Data Security Standard (PCIDSS)and the ISO 27000 series of standards and guidelines.Des's goals are to build on his wide-ranging experience across different verticalindustry sectors to drive a common understanding; where the benefits fromeffective information risk management can be understood, measured and valued.More recently, Des has been engaged as the Head of Framework Developmentwithin the Common Assurance Maturity Model programme on a voluntary basis;which has entailed the creation of the operating model for the framework itself,and the creation and management of subject matter expert teams to ensurethe delivery of the controls for the framework to the review teams within theprogramme.This engagement has allowed Des to be allowed to create the UK & Ireland Chapterof the Cloud Security Alliance, where he trusts his passion for communicating thebenefits of effective Information Risk Management will show in the output from thechapter and subsequent engagement with all stakeholders in the cloud environmentin the coming two years term.Des has a distinction pass in the MSc in IT security from the University ofWestminster, where he has also been a visiting lecturer. He has also lectured atthe University of Bath, has presented on Internet Security Threats to the WhitehatsInformation Security interest group and on Changing the business perception ofSecurity to the 2007 Gartner Security Summit, the BCS, the Whitehats group andthe Information Security Forum.