What Is Information Security?

Conceptual overview of information security protecting data and systems

Big idea

Information security is about reducing risk to information and systems by preventing problems, detecting problems, and responding well when problems happen.

What information security is NOT

Not just “hacking”
Not only for large companies
Not a product you buy once and forget

What we are trying to protect

Examples:

Personal data (student records, employee data)
Money and accounts
Systems and services (wifi, websites, email)
Trust and reputation

Beginner-friendly security areas

You do not need to be an expert in all of these to understand the basics:

Identity and access (logins, permissions)
Networks (how data moves)
Endpoints (laptops, phones)
Web and applications (browsers, websites)
Data protection (backups, encryption)
Monitoring and response (logs, incident response)

Quick check (2 minutes)

Write one example of:

Something worth protecting (an asset)
Something that could go wrong
Something you could do to reduce that risk