OPERATIONAL SECURITY OF UBIQUITOUS INFORMATION - Cyberwar-Netwar: Security in the Information Age - page 89

same applies to the SMS service, which is also convenient and widely used. Mobile data
communications are, in fact, already in place and useful. In terms of content, SMS is like
the telephone because it uses on-line personal and content generation. The next step has
to be its linkage to the already existing information architecture so that any content may
be used by the new mobile data infrastructure whenever and wherever needed.
Communication creates value, much more than content 5 . Mobile data access will
create value for organizations because it permits data access whenever and wherever
necessary. Moreover, both mobile devices and GPS technology allow the existence of a
new type of information with the location of the communicating actors. This information
is available in real time and will be tremendously useful for many applications (GPS is,
of course, more accurate).
For organizations, location information enhances resource management with critical
location-based criteria. Because margins become tighter every day, and because logistics
and supply chain operations are more and more related to enterprise success, this
application of mobile data communications can rapidly become a strategic resource.
Furthermore, the value system is starting to be on-line for almost every sector. The
Internet is a cradle for new markets and intermediaries. Metamediaries 6 , for example, are
a real outcome of a new market dynamics. Consequently, every organization that wants
to participate in this new virtual value system has to be on-line with everyone else in that
particular universe. Once again, we have to secure this value and this dependence.
On the other hand, organizations can really be on-line with their customers and have,
at the same time, location-based information, which permits the existence of location-
based services. Real-time processes and huge amounts of data will be necessary for the
new business models that will emerge from the use of this technology. Alongside with
business models, organizations will experience the need for new strategies 7 .
For this work, more than to pursue competitive advantages and finding the right
strategies to acquire them, our concern is the competitive disadvantages that will occur
when technology fails or misleads. All this value creation relies heavily on computer and
communication devices, and because it happens through real-time processes, they just
cannot fail.

7. SECURITY FOR ORGANIZATIONS IN THE INFORMATION AGE

Security approaches must follow the value being secured. As explained above, this
value can be calculated from the risk facing every business. The risk is the outcome of
the opportunity costs of not having operations available and from the competitive
disadvantages originated by its unavailability.
Security is expensive. It has to be regarded as an investment, the return from which
comes from lower risk exposure and less security losses. In order to control security costs
as much as possible, we classify activities according to their importance in business and
propose an architectural approach for security measures,
To analyse activities we propose the use of Porter's value chain model 8 classifying
organizational activities as primary and support. Furthermore, primary activities can also
be classified as operational or strategic. McFarlan proposes a simplified BCG Matrix
version in order to classify organizational resources according to their strategic
importance 9 . For our first dimension we will use the McFarlan Matrix.