News Release - 1 December 2004

Citicus welcomes IT-Arkitekterna as a new implementation partner in Sweden

UK company Citicus Limited has entered into a partnership agreement with IT-Arkitekterna Konsult i Stockholm AB to help organizations in Sweden to measure and manage information risk and compliance using its award-winning Citicus ONE risk management software.

Announcing the partnership, Marco Kapp, co-founder of Citicus Limited says “We’re delighted to strengthen our representation in Scandinavia. Businesses and public-sector institutions in Sweden are well aware of the risks posed by their critical IT systems; they know they need to get them under control both for their own benefit and in order to comply with IT-related regulations”.

“IT-Arkitekterna will help us build successful implementations in this region. They are at the forefront in Sweden in developing customer-specific solutions based on modern techniques and technology. Their experienced consultants help customers in the banking, finance, insurance, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and public administration sectors with business and systems development, methodology development and project management. These skills are just what’s needed to implement effective risk management processes focused on IT."

Åke Granberg, Managing director of IT-Arkitekterna said “As a forefront vendor here in Sweden providing customer-specific IT solutions based on the Rational Unified Process (RUP), we know the importance of measuring and managing information risk throughout the system life cycle. Citicus ONE – with its underlying FIRM methodology - will strengthen our capabilities to help customers improve in this area, based on our comprehensive RUP experience of project- and process management, training and mentoring.”

IT-Arkitekterna’s practice leader Hans Carlbring adds “We’ve been very impressed with this ground-breaking tool – and we’re fully equipped and eager to help Swedish organizations gain advantage from deploying it successfully”.

WHY IS MANAGING INFORMATION RISK IMPORTANT?

In the 'information age', it is vital that top management understands the business risks posed by information systems and keep them under control.

Doing so is a requirement of good governance - which demands powerful processes for managing risk and for verifying compliance with good practice. It is also a matter of self-interest, given there's a 62% chance of a business-critical system 'going wrong' each year. This can be slashed by developing, using and running systems in line with good practice. Implementing Citicus ONE helps businesses motivate and equip people to achieve this goal.

WHAT IS CITICUS ONE?

Citicus ONE is a web-based, risk management and compliance reporting system. It deals with information risk and compliance not as a series of one-off evaluations but via a coherent, continuing managed process.

The process enables companies to measure the risk posed by their critical systems efficiently – and their compliance with good practice - in a business-oriented manner; and helps them manage risk down to a level that is acceptable to top management.

THE POWER OF CITICUS ONE

The power of Citicus ONE stems from its rigorous statistical base and from the formal methodology it employs for measuring and managing information risk. This methodology is called FIRM. It was developed by the co-founders of Citicus Limited for, and in conjunction with, the Information Security Forum (ISF). This is an international association of over 250 leading organisations who come together to fund and co-operate in the development of practical research about information risk and security. Over the past thirteen years the ISF has invested more than US $40 million in providing authoritative research for its members in this area. FIRM is one of the ground-breaking outcomes of this effort.

Citicus Limited has the exclusive right to automate FIRM for sale, manifested in Citicus ONE.

About Citicus (www.citicus.com)

Citicus Limited was formed in 2000 by Simon Oxley, Sian Alcock and Marco Kapp - the chief architect of the FIRM methodology. The company develops and markets world-class automated risk management tools that emerge from Citicus' collaborative development programmes and provides education and training to help customers implement them successfully. Citicus ONE is the result of this continuing process.

About IT-Arkitekterna (http://www.it-arkitekterna.se/index.shtml)

IT-Arkitekterna Konsult i Stockholm AB is one of Sweden’s leading business systems consulting companies. Since 1996 it has helped its customers build cost-effective IT solutions. It specialises in the Rational Unified Process - a Web-enabled software engineering process created by the Rational Software Corporation, now owned by IBM, which enhances team productivity and delivers software best practices to all team members - and has around 75 consultants experienced in business and systems development, development methodologies and project management.

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