4.3 Scarcity and shareability Modern business theory now views an organisation's intangible, rather than its tangible, assets as the reservoir of much of its value. Even a not-for-profit organisation requires information to be shared and protected for its mission to be accomplished. With this new perspective has come a re-evaluation of the methods to be used to protect the value of an organisation. Historically, four walls were all that was needed to demarcate the inside of an organisation from the outside; and four sturd
3.3 Incentives Reread the short section entitled ‘Benefits of an information security management system’ at the end of Chapter 1 of IT Governance: A Manager's Guide to Data Security & BS 7799/ISO 177799 (the Set Book). In light 3.2.3. Regulation and codes of conduct Chapter 1 of the Set Book presents a case for effective information security based largely upon perceived threats and legal obligations. Chapter 2 introduces further imperatives, which govern specific types of organisation in the UK. 3.2 Imperatives Imperatives generally arise from three sources: threats: companies that depend on information and the technologies that carry it have to protect these resources from a wide range of threats; legislation: many countries have enacted legislation to govern the storage and use of information; regulation: many countries have regulations governing the management and control of public and private assets. 3.1 Introduction The design of a successful information security policy and strategy for any organisation requires an assessment of a number of key factors. These factors can be categorised as either imperatives or incentives. Imperatives are pressures that force you to act. Incentives are the rewards and opportunities that arise from acting. In Subsection 3.2 we examine the main imperatives confronting organisations. These arise either from threats to information assets or from the obliga 1 Why is information security important? This unit introduces you to information security and its management. A succinct definition of information security might run as follows: Information security is the collection of technologies, standards, policies and management practices that are applied to information to keep it secure. But why is it important to secure information? And how should its security be managed? To s Introduction Information security underpins the commercial viability and profitability of enterprises of all sizes and the effectiveness of public sector organisations. This unit begins by explaining why information security and its management are important for any modern organisation. The unit continues by examining the value that can be placed on information as an organisational asset. The protection of information assets is the subject of the BSi standard on information security management, and the uni 11.3 Controlling cookies in Internet Explorer It's important to remember that you have the ability to control cookies. This exercise will take you through setting a level of security on cookies using Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6, while the next page deals with Mozilla Firefox version 1 (you do not have to be online to do this exercise). Using Internet Explorer Open your browser. On the top menu bar of the browser choose Tools > Internet Options. 4.1 Email attachments Following some simple rules should help you to minimise the risks from malware. The first rule is:
Never ‘double click’ to open a file attached to an email
Instead, what you should do is: Create a folder called ‘Attachments’ (or something similar) in an accessible location within your file structure. Mine is in ‘My Documents’ and is called ‘My Received Files’. 2.2 Browsing for information on the Web One way to find what you are looking for on the Web is to start from sites that you know are likely to have useful ‘links’ on them, like the main Open University pages or the Open University Library pages. These opening pages are known as home pages and are a bit like the contents page of a book. The home page usually gives you some information about the content of the website, often with links to other pages of information held on that site and on sites elsewhere. By clicking on a link â Information on the web Liz Bennett and Jon Rosewell 7.6 Researching information about RFID tags What is the smallest RFID tag currently available? Use the Web to see what you can come up with but don't spend longer than 10 minutes on this activity. (Hint: using ‘smallest RFID tag’ as the search term w 7.5 Active and passive tags Read the extracts below. Using the information they contain, make notes about the main differences between active and passive RFID tags. You will get more out of this exercise if you make a serious attempt to d 6.4 Signal accuracy In the Networked microsensors and the end of the world as we know it article, the author talks about sensors being able to link the ‘world of events’ with the ‘electronic world of computers, processes and storage devices […] by integrating analogue sensing with digital processing […]’ (Shepherd, 2003). In the physical world, events usually take place as an ever-changing continuum. Time passes, the seasons change, temperatures fluctuate and water reservoirs fill and dr 5.3 An introduction to competing technologies Look again at Table 4. If I simply wanted to connect my computer and my mouse wirelessly, would I use WiFi? If I wanted to connect together six or seven laptop computers so that they could share information with each other in a face-to-face business meeting, would I 4.7 WiFi data rates and operating range Just as for Ethernet, developments in technology have increased the achievable data rates since the first WiFi standard was developed in 1997. At the time of writing, the latest WiFi standard to be published – IEEE 802.11g – defines a data rate of 54 Mbps. 4.6 WiFi stations A WiFi station determines whether it is in range of an AP by transmitting an enquiry, known as a probe request frame, and waiting for a response. If more than one AP responds, the station will choose to communicate with the one that has the strongest signal. A probe request frame initiates the WiFi connection and is an example of a management frame – a type of frame that does not carry any message data. Just like the nodes on an Ethernet network, each station must have a means of bein 5.1 The personal computer Over the following screens you will look at three different examples of computers: a PC, which is obviously a computer, and a set of electronic kitchen scales and a digital camera, which are not so obviously computers. You will find that all three of these examples match with the functional block diagram of a computer given in Author(s): 7.2 Difficulties in navigating e-commerce sites People who are new to computing sometimes find the process of online ordering baffling and frustrating. They get ‘lost’ in the process – for example, by putting something into a virtual shopping cart and then remembering that there's something else they need to look for. So they return to the search engine or the catalogue and then can't find the cart. These kinds of commonly experienced difficulties can be addressed by good and adaptive site design, but still a disturbing proportion of 2.1.1 What's ‘Buy It Now’?
Activity 8
Activity 6
Activity 32: exploratory
Activity 30: exploratory
Activity 17: exploratory
