What is information security?

This is the first instance in a series of articles covering the basics about information security. What could be more basic to begin with than talking about information security in general? Let's have a look at the official definition from ISO 27000:2018 first.

"Information security ensures the confidentiality, availability and integrity of information."

Information is essential for the success and continuity of most organizations. This is why information is considered as an asset that requires rigid protection. Information can be stored in many forms.

• digital form (e.g. data in a database)
• material form (e.g information printed on paper)
• unrepresented form?(e.g knowledge of the organisation)

Security Objectives

Organizations are increasingly depending on the confidentiality, integrity and availability of their information and the related information systems. These security objectives are often referred to as the CIA triad.

Confidentiality

Keeping information confidential is all about preventing unauthorised people from gaining access to it. This implies that organizations need to classify their information which allows them to define access and protection levels that have to be enforced by implementing controls like physical security or cryptography.

Integrity

Integrity is the second component of the CIA triad. Information has to be protected from unauthorized modification, so people can rely on the integrity of the information. This is why changes need to be tracked, so the damage of in case of a mistake can be reversed.

Availability

Because of the importance of information for the ongoing operations of most organizations, information has to be available. To support that security objective organizations require backups and technical controls to ensure the availability of information systems

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