Information Security analysis - Dissertation Example

The researcher states that of the 124 organizations involved in the present study, majority are public sector organizations from the education sector with a size of more than 1000 employees which have been in operation for more than three decades. Majority of the organizations have IT departments and employs at least one person knowledgeable about information security. Majority of the IT department staff in the respective organizations hold bachelor degrees, working in non-technical tasks, and whose working experience in the IT field is in the range of one to five years.

The knowledge level of employees working with information security in the respective organizations is neutral (neither poor nor good) broken down as follows: security management, neither poor nor good; access control, neither poor nor good; cryptography, poor; security models and architecture, neither poor nor good; telecommunications and networking, good; applications and system development, neither poor nor good; business continuity, neither poor nor good; law investigations and ethics, neither poor nor good; physical security, neither poor nor good; and operations security, neither poor nor good.

Given that the knowledge level of IT staff among the organization is mediocre (not poor, but not good either), majority of them either have no plans to acquire certifications in security or have plans but specified no definite time frame. As to information security, majority of the 124 organizations do not apply any information security standards and this majority is undecided whether or not to apply InfoSec standards in the future. . 5 Health Services 10 8.1 8.1 72.6 Food & Agriculture 4 3.2 3.2 75.

8 Transportation 4 3.2 3.2 79.0 Electricity 3 2.4 2.4 81.5 Water 3 2.4 2.4 83.9 Foreign Affairs Sector 1 .8 .8 84.7 Labour Sector 2 1.6 1.6 86.3 Tourism 4 3.2 3.2 89.5 Social Affairs Sector 4 3.2 3.2 92.7 Justice Sector 2 1.6 1.6 94.4 Islamic Affairs Sector 2 1.6 1.6 96.0 Media Sector 5 4.0 4.0 100.0 Total 124 100.0 100.0 As shown in Table 2, organizations from the education, military, trading and contracting, and banking and finance sectors represent 23.4%, 10.5%, 10.5%, and 8.9% of the total number organizations considered in the study, respectively.

Cumulatively, the aforementioned figures represent 53.3% of the total. The Embassy of Switzerland (2011) identified the following major sectors in Saudi Arabia: oil and gas, financial services, engineering and construction, medical equipment and healthcare, insurance, transport, electrical power systems, water resources equipment, telecommunication, food and beverage, and education. Table 3 shows the frequency and percentage distribution of the 124 organization when they are grouped with respect to size.

The organizations were categorized into five groups: 1 to 50 employees, 51 to 100 employees, 101 to 500 employees, 501 to 1000 employees, and more than 1000 employees. Table 3. Distribution of organizations according to size. Size of your organization Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Valid 1 - 50 Employees 17 13.7 13.7 13.7 51 – 100 Employees 25 20.2 20.2 33.9 101 – 500 Employees 27 21.8 21.8 55.6 501 - 1000 Employees 11 8.9 8.9 64.5 More than 1000 Employees 44 35.5 35.5 100.

0 Total 124 100.0 100.0 It may be gleaned from Table 3 that 44 out of 124 organizations or more than one third of the organizations considered in the present