Insights from Y2K and 9/11 for Enhancing IT Security

Abstract

In the post-9/11 environment, there has been an increasing awareness of the need for information security. This chapter presents an analysis of the Y2K problem and 9/11 disaster from the perspective of Lally’s extension of Perrow’s Normal Accident Theory and the Theory of High Reliability Organizations. Insights into: 1) how characteristics of current IT infrastructures and organizational cultures make disasters more likely, 2) how organizations can respond to potential threats and mitigate the damage of those that do materialize, and 3) how IT can be used to identify future threats and mitigate their impact in the future, emerge from the analysis.