NEW YORK--PRNewswire in May created its first-ever chief security officer role and hired Martha Davidson to fill the position, which oversees physical security, information security and business continuity planning for the information firm's worldwide offices.

Securing information is a challenge numerous organizations face in today's environment and the risk is no different for PRNewswire, which disseminates news for half of the publicly traded companies listed on exchanges in the United States and sends out 1,000 press releases per day. Davidson will be responsible for identifying risk factors in the physical and IT arenas, recommending security strategies and implementing security programs for the firm's commercial news distribution service.

"PR Newswire has an extensive security program from both a logical and physical aspect, and in business continuity," Davidson said. "The infrastructure is in place and my role is to align it in terms of providing strategic direction and more understanding of what current business risks are and develop a holistic security program that addresses these physical and logical risks."

She will report to David Michael, the company's chief information officer and executive vice president of global operations. In a prepared statement, Michael said, "this is market moving information and must be safeguarded using the most technically advanced security measures available."

Davidson started her career in IDT and served in various roles of system analysis. She joined AT&T's networked security team in 1993. From there she served in various roles, both physical and information security before being named security director at Bell South Latin America, where she was responsible for rolling out a comprehensive security program.

Davidson said a big focus for PRNewswire is that its security program is transparent to the customer. It is a fine balance between the two forces, she said -- security cannot impact the customer experience but clients also have to feel comfortable that there are strong security parameters in place.

"(Security) has become a great selling point," she said. "There are so many security threats out there and it is important for customers to know information is being safeguarded."

Davidson said business continuity is also critical to the organization. She said recent statistics reported that out of 93 percent of businesses that experience a disaster, only 43 percent recover effectively.

"For us, we value our customers and we have a strong contingency plan in place," she said.

Coming into a company as its first CSO is challenging, but Davidson recommended first conducting an assessment to fully understand a company's view of security.

"You need to understand the security risks as it relates to the business, be able to determine the security posture and what the gaps are so you are able to present that to your executive management team," she said. "Executive management needs to understand the business relationship -- the value is there for the organization."