Confidentiality and Integrity

The CIA model helps explain the difference between confidentiality and integrity policies. Confidentiality policies deal with offering data and information to authorized persons only. Some of these policies include giving employees authorizations and access rights based on their job, level of data classification and information for their work, administrative laws, signed confidentiality contrast, encryption, locks, keys, and passwords. On the other hand, integrity policies involve keeping data and information complete and correct, protecting them from unauthorized modification, both accidental and intentional. Such policies include using mechanisms for checking data to prevent errors, access control, employee security training, and backups.

Failure to protect data confidentiality and integrity inhibits the sharing and transfer and sharing, thereby inhibiting innovation. Implementing confidentiality policies gives organizations a competitive advantage because they achieve knowledge security. Knowledge security is well described through the tacit feature of knowledge since it is easy to secure. However, because employees are the exclusive depositaries of tacit knowledge, it is not secure since when they leave, the company loses valuable knowledge.

The problem with integrity is that it is challenging to limit employee actions, especially when they leave an organization. When an employee leaves a company, there can be a loss of integrity because the tacit knowledge base is only with the employee. Therefore, data protection policies need to focus on employees by drawing valuable knowledge from them and storing it in other environments where it is easy to manage.

Considering tacit knowledge, managers should focus more on knowledge workers who are the knowledge depositaries. Knowledge workers can delegate tasks to technology applications and adapt them to the organizational context. Employees can use their effort and time when they are not given repetitive work to engage in value-generating activities which need creativity and innovation. To make this influential, companies must employ security measures for the applications consistent with the organization's security policies.