Information Security in Government

Abstract

This chapter examines the important issue of the impact of information security in government. Information security is one of the critical issues of Homeland Security Information Systems (HSIS). As we know from Chapter 4, information security is one of the leading concerns of Chief Information Officers (CIO) in the realm of homeland security. This chapter explores the impact of information security on government similarly to a framework provided by Straub and Welke (1998) who believe that the organizational environment, individual characteristics, the information systems environment, and level of threats are related to management perceptions of information security risk. The argument is that the stronger the correlation between changes in these four factors this would have an influence on the perception of management of information security risk. Therefore, the more the organizational culture supports information security the greater the managerial concern. In this chapter there is an argument made that there needs to be more knowledge of the leading issues facing information security in order to influence the organizational culture. The first part of this chapter focuses on several information security issues that have been identified in the literature. These issues deal with management, policy, and end users of IT and their impact on information security. The second part of this chapter provides evidence from several information security surveys. The last part of this chapter deals with survey results from an information security survey of Texas state agencies.