Information Security: Planning for the Deluge (From Information Revolution and National Security: Dimensions and Directions, Stuart J. D. Schwartzstein, ed., P 15-23, 1996, -- See NCJ-190994)

• NCJ Number: 190995
• Author(s): Alfred A. Jones
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 9 pages
• Sale Source: Ctr for Strategic and International Studies
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Collected Work
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This essay proposes that the effectiveness of controls over information assets has been declining for 30 years, and the rate of this loss is increasing.

Abstract

Information security is directly linked to the issue of control of information assets. When electronic linkages among computer facilities integrated these facilities into a computer-net utility, the effectiveness of security began its downward trend. Exacerbating this problem is the increasing amount of data being generated and transmitted throughout computer-net utilities. With information growth continuing at an explosive rate, control becomes the first fatality, with security becoming difficult and impractical. Nationally established security standards and directions do not readily translate into the solutions needed for global operations. With the computer-net utility in place, it will become increasingly easier to move business because electronic relocations will not impose the severe financial penalty of physical relocations. Formal ownership of information assets with its attendant accountability and authority is confused. The culprits in this confusion are the information protection practitioners. What is needed is an information security function that works across lots of different platforms with a mixture of equipment, operating systems, networking systems, and database management systems. User-friendly interfacing with security products can be provided. Security infrastructure must be planned with the same discipline as planning for business and technological advances. A properly constructed policy in combination with a properly trained user organization provides the fullest human-computer security solution. Government and the private sector must work together cooperatively to remove barriers that block the promise of the Global Information Infrastructure. Another control issue that will require attention is resource addressability. The emergence of standardized directories capable of handling the huge inventory of resource addresses will enable improved security. A security issue that will take on greater importance in the future is robotic safety.