Informational Security & IT Governance Framework

Introduction

With explosion of the internet based applications, the ways of conducting businesses has been changed dramatically. In today’s digital world, organizations are diverging into digitalization by moving from manual to electronic media as means of communication, storage and dissemination of data to stakeholders (Schinagl & Shahim, 2020). High dependency on IT has exposed the organizations towards threat of information security. IT has long been seen as the cornerstone for gaining competitive advantage in today’s competitive world. Although the new technologies are making things swift and easier for organizations, yet these are also making companies vulnerable to unexpected cyber-attacks and information security breach (Fazlida & Said, 2015). 

Information security landscape has been reshaped as it has taken place as a key agenda in the boardrooms of big companies. Organizations have to compete in forever expanding dynamic environments while dealing with disruptive world through embracing the digital technology. As the organizations are adopting digital business strategies including internet of things, block-chain, artificial intelligence and cloud computing, the face of information security has changed from being an isolated issue to the key strategic business challenge. Information security management is a key aspect of IT governance as it forms the basis of privacy, risk management and IT governance (see figure below).

Information security, IT security and IT governance all make a common part of Information Security Governance. Information security encompasses the collaborative efforts put in forth by the firms to protect the data and the information systems from the inappropriate access, modification, destruction and manipulation in order to ensure integrity and confidentiality of the data and systems (AlGhamidi, Win, & Vlahu-Gjorgievska, 2020). Information security governance includes the set of responsibilities and the practices that are exercised by the upper and lower management alike with a common goal of providing the strategic direction. It includes the ways through which organizations proceed towards achieving objectives while minimizing the risks of information breach. 

Information security governance includes all the tools and processes that ensure that the organization has carried security for meeting the organizational needs. It requires the organization to set roles & responsibilities, defined tasks and performance measurements (Deane, Goldberg, Rakes, & Rees, 2019). There are several challenges that the companies are facing today in name of organizational information security. Information security holds a prime importance in organizations because the IS incidents and the breaches of security can directly impact the businesses and can halt the operations. The grave challenges facing the organization include security breaches and cyber-attacks. In order to analyze the problems, challenges and solutions related to cyber-attacks and information security in organizations, the role of information governance will be discussed critically using previous studies. 

Critical Literature Review

The threats of information breach and cyber-attacks are increasing as the organizations are diverging towards digital business strategies that require high level of technological deployment (Karanja, 2017).  By diverting the business operations towards digitalization, the organizations have to fully embed and embrace the IT into business operations (Wu & Saunder, 2016). The major leading organizations including Airbnb and Uber are the dominant examples of how the distance between the physical world and IT digitalized world has been minimized (Schinagl & Shahim, 2020). Due to these advancements, the gap between security and the business operations have somewhat narrowed down. According to Wu & Saunders (2016), due to the shift towards digital technology, the firms are now required to embed information security into the whole IT governance structure so that the business challenges can be met with successfully. 

Fazilda & Said (2015) reviewed the growing emergence of the information security threats that are required to be integrated by the organizational corporate governance and IT governance structure. According to the authors, the proper management of information security can aid IT governance by providing assistance and assurance in terms of integrity, confidentiality and availability of information. The firms who fail to formulate the IT security systems are prone to cyber-attacks that can lead to financial, reputational, client and partner losses and might result in litigation and government sanctions (Berkman et al., 2018). According to Hasbini et al. (2018), the cyber-attacks can also limit the firm’s innovation capability and might make it lose its competitive edge. For instance, the information security breaches might lead to negative market reaction and can cause the value, goodwill and materiality of the firm to fall (Higgs et al., 2016).