Information security awareness, a must for every organization

Abstract

Information Technology (IT) has become part and parcel of the business world today. In fact, with the increasing sophistication of networks and the continued growth in electronic commerce, it will continue becoming an ever larger factor in the future (Fitzgerald, 1 995). Information has become the most important asset in most organizations and must therefore be protected properly. Traditionally, physical and technical control measures were adequate, to a large extent, to protect information resources. With the distribution and interlinking of information systems and the fact that many users of information systems are not fully computer literate, it became necessary to augment the physical and technical controls with operational ones (von Solms, 1 997). The objective of operational controls is to dictate and discipline the behaviour of users to ensure secure utilization of information and the related information systems.