Better Security Will Enable More Individualized Electronic Marketing
By Ara C. Trembly
While mitigating cyber-risk will be an important security goal in the years to come, better security will also enable more personalized and individualized electronic marketing, says a noted security expert.
According to Simon Perry, vice president and security strategist for Islandia, N.Y.-based Computer Associates, Web access, which is generally anonymous, is going to become less so, in order to help marketers address individual customer needs. "Businesses will need more knowledge, so well move away from anonymity on the Web," he notes.
"To treat you as individuals, we have to identify you as individuals," Perry explains. "Personalization comes from security, but I can only offer that if I can differentiate individuals."
Such authentication security will enable technology to safely provide an increasing number of people with access to information they want and need, he says.
Perrys remarks came in a keynote address during the InfoSecurity Conference held in December in New York.
As a society, we are moving away from physical assets and manufacturing and toward an "intangible" asset–information, Perry notes. Information as an asset is a key driver of security efforts.
Technology, says Perry, has traditionally been "a way of modifying, moving and delivering goods. Instead of ports and railroads [today] we have the Internet."
"Information technology," he continues, "exists only to move, manipulate and provide access to information." Consumers of that information, he adds, could include employees, customers, business partners, etc., but may also include those we want to keep out.