Marc Othersen is a senior analyst at Forrester Research, serving Security & Risk professionals. He is a leading expert in how companies structure and integrate information security, compliance, and risk management programs into normal business and IT operations. Marc’s research focuses on the strategies for the selection, integration, and management of IT controls to support information security, compliance, and risk management activities.

Marc has extensive experience with delivering practical solutions for complex information security, IT risk, and IT compliance issues. While employed by professional consulting firms such as Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Marc designed frameworks for the integration of information security and IT compliance, identified regulatory sources and normalized IT control requirements, re-engineered and automated information security, compliance, and risk processes, and established program metrics for measuring the effectiveness and efficiency of IT control execution. Marc has also been a CSO. He holds a B.S. in computer science from Texas A&M University.

Presentation
IT Compliance Frameworks: The Foundation of IT-GRC
Business imperatives, increased regulatory pressure, and customer demands are forcing many CIOs to adopt a structured, enterprise wide approach to deal with IT governance, risk, and compliance (GRC). IT GRC initiatives have traditionally been scattered across the organization without any coordination or synchronization. Today, many organizations are looking for solutions that can help them create a unified approach to managing information risk and IT compliance requirements while simultaneously ensuring good governance. CIOs are starting to recognize that disparate technologies and processes working in silos results in inefficiency, increased cost, and higher risk to the organization. This presentation will:

• Outline Forrester’s view of the IT GRC space
• Provide recommendations for developing a robust IT GRC program
• Identify top vendors providing technology solutions for IT GRC

To access additional information on Marc’s presentation, including a free report from Forrester, entitled “Defining IT GRC”, please visit: www.forrester.com/opengroup2008

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