CWHK: What are the challenges for a CIO at a security company?

Gerry Wilson (GW): Given what we do, certainly lots of hackers out there would like to hack into our site. So we hold our site at a higher standard for security protection.

We are currently managing 40,000 identities, both internal users and business partners, and more are on the way, therefore we need stronger authentication technology. It is certainly an easier job for us to find security products. It saves us a lot of time in evaluating the products because we go right to the best in the market.

Another major challenge for CIOs is that more attacks are becoming organized crimes. Many of these attacks are launched from Eastern Europe and [by] street kids. It's costing organizations a lot of money to deal with this kind of fraud. Spyware and bots are also getting nastier. I read an article about hackers who threatened a company for money or else they will launch an attack to bring down the site.

CWHK: How is the CIO role different in a security technology company?