risks that can critically affect the enterprise. So, the importance of security in infor-
mation systems is supported by many works [16, 33], just to mention some of them.
In the past, the enterprises that decided to protect their information systems faced
these projects from the perspective of considering that security was individual, in
other words, that only affected an object and not the whole set to which the object
belonged. That is to say, they were based on the implementation of security measures
but without carrying out an adequate management of such measures [9]. As time went
by, as enterprises did not have an adequate management, the implemented controls
were not maintained and were converted into passive controls that instead of helping
improve security, contributed to misinforming, offering erroneous information in
many cases. Thus, in [29], authors highlight the fact that technological aspects are not
enough for the construction of a security system but management as well as legal and
ethical aspects are necessary too.
Nowadays, experts consider that security in information systems has a bidimen-
sional character [26]. Today, security in information systems is not dealt with as an
exclusively technical aspect where the correct use of certain security mechanisms
(e.g. security protocols, cipher schemas, etc.) guarantees the security of a system in
absolute terms. Besides, and given the social integration of software systems, there is
a new dimension that becomes very relevant and must be carefully analyzed. This
new dimension has mainly a social and organizational character and is linked to the
fact that the interaction between mankind and secure information systems is becom-
ing higher. There are research results that have shown that the human factor has a
significant impact on security [25].
The problem of information security is characterized by its complexity and inter-
dependence. Security management contains an important number of factors and ele-
ments that are interrelated between them. SMEs in developed countries normally have
a weak comprehension of information security, security technologies and control
measures and so, they tend to forget about risk analysis or the development of secu-
rity policies [7]. This can be due to the fact that SMEs lack the resources, time and
specialized knowledge necessary for coordinating information security or offering
adequate information about security, training and education. However, the literature
suggests a very different explanation. Authors in [13] state that SMEs do not want to
pay for security and they prefer to maintain a physical security they are familiarized
with. Authors in [7] point out that SMEs lacking of a specialized knowledge in secu-
rity technologies, tend to maintain security using the technologies they are already
familiarized with. Additionally, SMEs do not consider that security is linked to the
enterprise strategy and this fact directly impacts on its fulfilment [20]. In fact, a recent
research puts forward the need to link information security to strategic planning in-
formation systems and therefore, to the enterprise objectives [6].
Despite that there are many security standards in ICT such as the code of good
practice [11], methodologies for security management such as COBIT [4], or for risk
management such as MAGERIT [15], or even maturity models for information secu-
rity management such as SSE–CMM [28], they are normally designed for big corpo-
rations, are very rigid and their practical application in SMEs requires plenty of time
and is very expensive. These are the reasons why many enterprises offer resistance to
integrate adequate security management techniques, thus assuming security risks and
so, the loss of competitiveness that are not acceptable in the modern enterprise.
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