Safeguarding Information

Protecting information requires maintaining confidentiality and integrity, while ensuring accessibility and availability of information via security, safety, and ethical behavior. Confidentiality involves the prevention of disclosure of information to unauthorized individuals. Information integrity means that data cannot be modified without someone being able to detect its modification. Information availability 

An information risk assessment is a variation of a more traditional risk assessment, which focuses on identifying assets and looking at the threats and vulnerabilities of each asset to potential loss. In conducting an information risk assessment, the first step is to identify information assets and estimate their value to the organization. 

Identifying information assets requires investigation and asking questions such as What type of information does the organization maintain What is its value to the organization and Where is the information stored, whether digitally or in hard copies  

The security manager should identify information and place a value on it. The security manager should calculate the value of each information asset. This would require a qualitative or quantitative analysis of information to determine what that information is worth to the organization. Questions such as How can we meet the primary mission of this organizational enterprise in the absence of this information and What legal ramifications exist if we do not safely maintain this information artifact should be considered. 

The second step is to conduct a threat assessment to the organization s information. A threat assessment of information is a daunting task for educators. It requires the knowledge of all the information maintained by the organization and potential threats to that information. Threats can be obvious, such as natural disasters, or more ambiguous, such as a computer virus. Information stored in different media may have completely different characteristics and subsequent threats. The threats to 

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Breach of confidentiality Confidentiality of data requires safeguarding information that has been given voluntarily by one person to another. Some research requires access to the participants hospital, school, or employment records. Such access is generally acceptable as long as the researcher protects the confidentiality of that information. The IRB should be aware that a breach of confidentiality could result in psychological or social harm. 

Standby power batteries (batteries for uninterruptible power supply, for safeguarding information, ete.) ... 

The data from an accurate risk assessment of information value, threats, and vulnerabilities will provide the educator the ability to identify, select, and implement appropriate security measures. This does not require that the educator be an expert in safeguarding information, but it does assume that the educator has knowledge of information and knows when to provide a proportional response, even if that requires acquiring expert assistance in completing the task. The educator should understand productivity, cost effectiveness, and value of the informational asset and its threats and vulnerabilities and subsequently how to go about protecting it (Elky, 2006). 

INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY. IAEA Safeguards An Introduction, IAEA Safeguards Information Series No. 3, IAEA, Vienna (1981). 

Balducelli, C., Bologna, S., Lavalle, L. Vicoli, G. 2007. Safeguarding information intensive critical infrastructures against novel types of emerging failures. Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Vol.92, p.1218-1229. 

Where a Member State ascertains tliat a product, bearing the CE-marking and used in accordance with its intended use, is liable to endanger the safety of persons or health, it shall take all appropriate measures to withdraw such a product from the market. That Member State shall immediately Inform the Commission which is obliged to investigate whether or not the measure is justified. Where the Commission considers that the measure is justified, it shall immediately inform the Member State which took the initiative and also the other Member States. This entails that the other Member States must also take action against the product concerned. That latter disposition is referred to as the safeguard clause. 

If a trade secret is beHeved to have been violated, a judge must initially decide whether or not it actuaHy existed. Such determination is based ia part oa the manner ia which the trade secret was protected and also on such considerations as the commercial value of the information, the manner ia which the information was safeguarded, and the manner ia which the information was stolea or otherwise fouad ia the pubHc domaia. These are also some of the initial factual determiaatioas which must be made whea considering trade secret protectioa. 

The protection of a trade secret is a complex task dependent upon any number of factors. The mere formation of an intention to maintain information as secret is not enough actual safeguards must be put into place. The owner of a trade secret must identify the information as a trade secret and protect the information from disclosure. Means used to prevent disclosure might include the following ... 

Proceedings, Plutonium Information Meetingforan ad hoc Subcommittee oftheAdvisoy Committee on Reactor Safeguards, CONE—740115, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M., 1974. 

Was information on the process sufficient to develop appropriate safeguards ... 

High value products and often proprietaiy information are given into the custody of a third party. It is therefore essential to determine what measures are being taken by tollers to safeguard products and information. 

The Competent Authority to which the incident was originally reported usually takes on the role of monitoring and evaluating how the incident is dealt with. When all actions are complete, including any necessary Field Safety Correction Actions, the manufacturer must submit a final report to the Competent Authority. Under a safeguard clause. Competent Authorities may take unilateral action to remove a device from their market, if they believe that it poses an unacceptable health risk, but the Commission must be informed of such actions. In less-urgent situations, concerns may be referred to the Committee for Medical Devices for consideration. 

Nevertheless, as patents safeguard the innovator s private information as to the value of the innovation, incentives to innovate would be greater with patents than with grants. There is no a priori argument to tip the balance towards one alternative or the other. It is necessary to develop a formal model, as proposed by Shavell and Ypersele. 

All societies have their rules of play their institutions. These institutions can be defined as the restrictions created by humanity to give structure to political, economic and social interaction. A society s institutions are at the same time its rules of play and its safeguard mechanisms. They can be formal, such as the Constitution, laws, property rights and ethical codes, or informal, such as customs, traditions and expected codes of conduct in a professional group. 

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