Accountability is ...
... "in contrast to responsibility, a sticky property that cannot be unilaterally delegated or passed by the accountable person or organisation to another, in other words the buck stops here" [source: SecAware glossary]
... less ambiguous and yet, strangely, more confusing than other terms
in this blog series
... being able to give a satisfactory reason or justification
... distinct from, but often conflated with, responsibility
... an inherent part of various jobs, roles or positions
... knowing that things must be done properly
... easily forgotten until an incident occurs
... both a threat and an opportunity
... the latitude to decide and act
... a token of respect and trust
... a governance arrangement
... a degree of independence
... beyond mere expectation
... having to explain oneself
... imposed by an authority
... a powerful disincentive
... invariably bad news
... the sting in the tail
... a niggling concern
... power, moderated
... having guard rails
... a strong incentive
... best avoided
... mandatory
... formalised
... obligation
... awkward
... personal
... squirmy
... sticky
...
Other definitions in this weekly (weakly?) series:
- Assurance is ...
- Audit is ...
- Authorisation is ...
- Control is ...
- Cyber is ...
- Fragility is ...
- Governance is ...
- Impact is ...
- Information is ...
- ISO27k is ...
- Oversight is ...
- Resilience is ...
- Responsibility is ...
- Risk is ...
- Security is ...
- System is ...
- Threat is ...
- Trust is ...
- Vulnerability is ...