Information Assurance Process and Its Importance for Gaining a Competitive Advantage
Due to the fact that information assurance is based on the principles of confidentiality, availability, and integrity, it is necessary to develop the plan of intangible asset management for the company that would encompass all these components. More importantly, information should be carefully secured and updated for a company to adjust to rapid changes (Byth and Kovacich 5). This specifically concerns the companies specializing in technologies invention and production. Hence, constant advancement of information within an organization should contribute to the growth of competitive advantage. The above enumerated concepts will be the main components of our proposed system of information management. Below are more detailed principles of information assurance:
- There should be a balance between information availability and accountabilities of staff members who are responsible for the analysis and security of information;
- There should be a strict system of reporting and documenting the changes in records and data.
- Digital storage of information should be provided with high quality security software.
- A company should work out a strategy for information capture and presentation.
- Finally, incoming information should also be carefully processed and structurally identified to avoid inaccuracy in future.
Risk Identification and Risk Estimation
Information assurance is aimed at protecting information from exploiting data outside the company. In order to prevent the information leakage, there is a necessity to define efficient strategies on assessing the extent to which information is secured. Taking into consideration that a company is dealing with technological inventions, it is necessary estimate how information can be coded and transformed and to what degree these systems are effective. For this, we propose a plan of risk identification and risk assessment:
Risk identification
- Defining the problem: place and time of information leakage. This will help to measure time for presenting reactive and preventative measures;
- Defining the outcomes can contribute to more accurate solutions to the problem.
- Analyzing the problems of information security. Why have information leakage happened. This question will help to coordinate other department and to provide amendments to security system.
Risk Assessment
- Once the risk has been identified, it is necessary to conduct qualitative and quantitative research to understand the reasons of threats emergence. Interviewing and software examination will perfectly fit.
- When all researches are completed, a company should present a list of possible threat that might occur with regard to the level of information security within an organization.
Organizational, Technological, and Management Policy with Regard to Decision Making Process and Information Security
Organizational policy is closely connected with information assurance, especially when it comes to decision-making processes. In particular, organizational polices should be based on high accountability and stuff structuring. The organization should be able to make information available and systematic and to create an effective system of progress allocation.
Technological policy of a company should be aimed at constant advancing of security software. Hence, the knowledge management department should be responsible for the analysis of software market and for the research on the recent introductions and innovations in the sphere of technologies. This will considerably advance the information assurance process.
Management policy should be aimed at controlling information input and output. It means that it is necessary to improve organizational management and to provide effective approach to training and educating the personnel with regard to information assurance.
Reference
Byth, Andrew, and Kovacich, Gerald, L. Information Assurance: Security in the Information Environment. US: Springer Science & Business, 2006, Print.