Information Assurance
Information assurance is the most impactful aspect of business. In physical and digital formats information shared and proprietary sole ownership information is what creates the foundational value capable of propelling a business concept forward. By understanding vulnerabilities around information assurance the ability to lean into additional business aspects like risk management and quality assurance are attainable at a higher capacity.
What is Information Assurance
Book definitions include the terms
- Confidentiality
- Integrity
- Availability
- Authentication
- Non-repudiation
In conversational terms with clients, different departments, or business casual contacts how to manage information assurance can be described in actionable terms like
- Deciding how to secure information and what techniques will be implemented to establish the degree of security measures deemed necessary for adequate protection by the primary source entity
- Defining how the information will be stored, recorded, and accessed without being altered, lost, damaged, or inaccessible
- Demonstrating how the information will remain available regardless of location, time, place, or environment
- Describing how to establish user access permissions and verify the user
- Developing how communication and responsibility when accessing the information will be documented and undeniable accountability assigned to the authorized user
A very simple business summary may include how, what, where, who, when and why was my information accessed and is it still there in its original form.
Developing an information assurance system requires knowledge of the informations potential storage states and environments, potential risks and threats immediately available to the information, who needs access to it when and where, how the information could become vulnerable, areas of opportunity to prevent as much risk as possible by design and then communicating an ideal pathway, confirming the realistic nature of application, and testing the sustainability and success of the system. This process may lead to further refinement and discovery of various unknown threats and vulnerabilities to mitigate.
Who needs Information Assurance
Everyone from toddlers to students up through employees to business managers alongside stakeholders and the elderly. Information Assurance is applied daily, sometimes to a professional considerably secure level, sometimes by traditional outdated methods that haven’t been disproven.
Why is Information Assurance Important
Identity, creation, personal development, external expression, and life experience all influenced by time have value. Within that space you become vulnerable. Opportunity costs, perceived value, and core competencies come from this vulnerability. In order to optimize time spent, increase value, see upcoming risks, and protect from threats information assurance systems are a necessity.
When is Information Assurance Visibly Beneficial
If done right, never. Information assurance as a protection system should make your information so functional secure and available you don’t realize it’s the backbone supporting your structures and experiences. The goal is to implement a system that prevents experiences and attacks so you do not waste time recouping any losses. Information Assurance saves time and prevents setbacks that would lead to the realization that something needed to be fixed, something had been lost, or copious amounts of money would need to be spent in order to restore something if it could be. If you can see information assurance benefiting you than you are already suffering from attacks, corruption of data, environmental damage, lack of proper authentication, theft and a variety of other issues that are only noticed when something goes wrong. Information Assurance applied as soon as an entity becomes aware of it works quietly to prevent unnecessary delays.
Where does Information Assurance Application Start
Information assurance can be started on many levels and grow in complexity or fragment into simplified processes. Ideally it starts with me, when I see an opportunity for someone to experience a threat, risk, or vulnerability due to a lack of information available or ability to apply their knowledge base to the extent I can when it comes to security and information technology systems. Others places it starts are often server side, end user based applications from a software company, onboarding, university, on a piece of paper, in a word document, or wherever someone is when they realize it’s important. The degree of success is related directly to where the level implementation begins and where the information is currently available.
How to Start Information Assurance
Learn the core principles, terms, methods of application. Learn the information that needs to be protected inside and out. Learn risk management of information technology and systems. Learn about digital and physical information and methods to store, create, access, protect, and prevent corruption of. Learn cybersecurity, encryption, cryptography, scripting, databases, access controls, backup protocols, protocol updating, general vulnerabilities, how to mitigate the user as the biggest risk in business. Learn what methods have been used and are evolving in the current market. Learn to assess, audit, remediate, detect, contain, recover, and implement quality assurance methods. Going to university is the most linear long term value path, hiring someone is a valuable decision, creating a personal lab and learning through experience is going to produce the highest variability in success rate.