Like blood in the human systems, information is the livelihood of businesses, governments, security agencies and the entire society. Chessen (2002) suggests that information is the vital asset in today’s information technology enabled era. To make decision-making process faster and effective in businesses and government requires high quality and up-to-date information. Similarly, to remain competitive and secure, it is important to regulate the parties accessing specific information.
In order for this to be achieved, it is important to design strategies that guarantee access to high quality information. According to Greenspan, (2002), these strategies include designing and building information systems that are effective in gathering, analyzing and producing the required information to the targeted parties only. These information systems are also vital to be secure against potential risks so that the confidentiality and integrity of the information therein are maintained. While the information users may not be interested with the aspect of security in itself, all stakeholders acknowledge the benefits of security in information.
The value of information and information technology can only be protected through effective security. Unprotected information has led to such crimes as fraud. For IT systems, there serious security to information from worms, viruses, hackers, worms, and the social media engineering. Information security is one of the major determinants of the success organizations. For businesses, information security enable the company improve profitability by reducing extent of damages in information security breach. When an organization’s or government information security is insecure, huge costs are incurred in investigations of loss of information, information leakages and sources of malicious information. Other huge expenses could be incurred in attempting to recovering and re-securing data and tampered systems (Gellman, 2008).
Generally, trustworthy information security protects profiles of the government agencies against potential risks. While such reliable systems build confident among the stakeholders, it also ensures accurate information is reported to rightful people. In summary, information is primary asset in any society and demands similar treatment for its value to be reserved (Gellman, 2002).
References
Chessen, J., (2002). Information and Privacy. Journal of American Bankers Association. February 2000.
Gellman, R., (2002). Wireless Surfer Numbers Grow. Jupitermedia Corporation Accessed on Jan 6th 2011 at: <http://cyberatlas.internet.com/markets/wi reless/articl e/0,,10094_1457671,00.html>
Gellman, R., (2008). How the Lack of Privacy Costs Consumers and Why Business Studies of Privacy Costs are Biased and Incomplete. The Journal of The Consumer: March 2008: 3(2).
