Information Security Strategy in Organisations: Review, Discussion and Future Research Directions

Abstract: Dependence on information, including for some of the world's largest organisations such as governments and multi-national corporations, has grown rapidly in recent years. However, reports of information security breaches and their associated consequences continue to indicate that attacks are still escalating on organisations when conducting these information-based activities. Clearly, more research is needed to better understand how organisations should formulate strategy to secure their information. Through a thematic review of academic security literature, we (1) analyse the antecedent conditions that motivate the potential adoption of a comprehensive information security strategy, (2) the current perspectives of strategy and (3) the yields and benefits that could be enjoyed post-adoption. Our contributions include a definition of information security strategy. We argue for a paradigm shift to extend from internally-focussed protection of organisation-wide information towards a strategic view that considers the inter-organisational level. Our findings are then used to suggest future research directions.