TY - JOUR
T1 - Information security management needs more holistic approach
T2 - A literature review
AU - Soomro, Zahoor
AU - Shah, Mahmood
AU - Ahmed, Javed
PY - 2016/4/30
Y1 - 2016/4/30
N2 - Information technology has dramatically increased online business opportunities; however these opportunities have also created serious risks in relation to information security. Previously, information security issues were studied in a technological context, but growing security needs have extended researchers' attention to explore the management role in information security management. Various studies have explored different management roles and activities, but none has given a comprehensive picture of these roles and activities to manage information security effectively. So it is necessary to accumulate knowledge about various managerial roles and activities from literature to enable managers to adopt these for a more holistic approach to information security management. In this paper, using a systematic literature review approach,we synthesised literature related to management's roles in information security to explore specific managerial activities to enhance information security management. We found that numerous activities of management, particularly development and execution of information security policy, awareness, compliance training, development of effective enterprise information architecture, IT infrastructure management, business and IT alignment and human resources management, had a significant impact on the quality of management of information security. Thus, this research makes a novel contribution by arguing that a more holistic approach to information security is needed and we suggest the ways in which managers can play an effective role in information security. This research also opens up many new avenues for further research in this area.
AB - Information technology has dramatically increased online business opportunities; however these opportunities have also created serious risks in relation to information security. Previously, information security issues were studied in a technological context, but growing security needs have extended researchers' attention to explore the management role in information security management. Various studies have explored different management roles and activities, but none has given a comprehensive picture of these roles and activities to manage information security effectively. So it is necessary to accumulate knowledge about various managerial roles and activities from literature to enable managers to adopt these for a more holistic approach to information security management. In this paper, using a systematic literature review approach,we synthesised literature related to management's roles in information security to explore specific managerial activities to enhance information security management. We found that numerous activities of management, particularly development and execution of information security policy, awareness, compliance training, development of effective enterprise information architecture, IT infrastructure management, business and IT alignment and human resources management, had a significant impact on the quality of management of information security. Thus, this research makes a novel contribution by arguing that a more holistic approach to information security is needed and we suggest the ways in which managers can play an effective role in information security. This research also opens up many new avenues for further research in this area.
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2015.11.009
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2015.11.009
DO - 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2015.11.009
M3 - Article
SN - 0268-4012
VL - 36
SP - 215
EP - 225
JO - International Journal of Information Management
JF - International Journal of Information Management
IS - 2
ER -