Managing information systems security: Critical success factors and indicators to measure effectiveness

Abstract

For how long can a business remain without its information systems? Current business goals and objectives highly depend on their availability. This highly dynamic and complex system must be properly secured and managed in order to ensure business survivability. However, the lack of a universally accepted information security critical factors' taxonomy and indicators make security management of information systems (SMIS) a tough challenge. Effective information security management requires special focus on identifying the critical success factors (CSFs) when implementing and ensuring SMIS. The purpose of this paper is to share a group of 12 CSFs identified in the current information security literature as well as a set of 76 indicators which are easy to calculate and attempt to provide valuable information to organizations seeking information security level measurements. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.