Supporting activity

Supporting Activity Affiliation: Why it is important to protect the information organizations use today?
Information whether it is in digital form or not is important to the owner and hence protecting it from unauthorized access is the most important thing in an organization today and has been important ever since time immemorial. There are several reasons why protecting information in this current era is important including prevention from destruction, unauthorized access, hacking and inspection among others (Whitman and Mattord, 2011).
One of the greatest reasons is because organizations are saving all their information online and in digitalized form. With the influx of computer hackers in the market, that information is no longer as safe as earlier thought of and hence it is important to protect it from hackers who sell it to competitor organizations.
Confidentiality is also another reason for increasing the security of the information especially from clients (whether high ranking, celebrities or just the local citizen). Unauthorized access to information especially concerning records of medical health or financial records can damage the credibility of the organization and even tarnish the name of the owner and especially if the information is accessed by the wrong people.
What are the basic elements in systems that help with this task?
One of the basic elements is passwords to protect the information. The key to making this effective is in the strength of that password and ensuring that it cannot be easily cracked or hacked into. There is also encryption of most important or sensitive information in the organization. The information is kept in codes whose decryption key lies with the top management or clients of the organization who are the owners of the information (Wilshusen, 2011).
There are also asset tracking software and devices that keep track of all the information and where it goes and if it falls to the wrong hands, alarm is raised and hence shut down is necessitated. There are also authentication systems which ensure that only authorized personnel access information and the information is protected from malware like viruses and scam emails.
References
Whitman, M. E. and Mattord, H. J. (2011). Principles of Information Security. New York: Cengage Learning.
Wilshusen, G. C. (2011). Information Security: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Needs to Implement Key Program Elements and Controls. New York: DIANE Publishing.