Information security in hierarchical and ad-hoc emergency organizations : differences in communication challenges and training needs

• In their work emergency actors need to be able to adapt to two kinds of different organizations: a) hierarchical organizations, where they reside in their own groups doing routine tasks, and b) ad-hoc organizations formed in emergencies where they have to work together with people from other organizations. This paper presents a case study done in the emergency organizations of one municipality in Finland, discussing the information security of both hierarchical and ad-hoc organizations including for example the communication challenges they face and their training level and needs. The main finding of this paper is something that is little, if at all, discussed in emergency response literature, that emergency actors value different aspects of information security depending on the on whether they work in hierarchical or ad-hoc organizations. When working in hierarchy the most important thing is confidentiality; keeping sensitive information safeguarded. But when responding to emergency the most important things are information availability and integrity; the right information must reach the right person at the right time.The findings also show that the current basic training of emergency actors and the training and guidelines of each organization largely concentrate on confidentiality issues. The tools and communications training that would be needed to ensure information availability and integrity in an adhoc organization is not prioritized. This is a problem concerning that most communication challenges present in emergency communications can be seen to arise in situations when emergency actors are working in ad-hoc organizations.To take into account the dual nature of emergency response work and the needs that it poses for training those responsible for information security training in emergency organizations must therefore improve their training to provide both up to date information security training and awareness building, but also tools and communications training that supports inter-organizational communication.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Systemvetenskap, informationssystem och informatik med samhällsvetenskaplig inriktning (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Information Systems, Social aspects (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Information Security

emergency response

communication challenges

training

ICTs

Computer and Systems Science

Data- och systemvetenskap

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)