Information Assurance and the Information Society

Society is on the verge of a new era: the information age. Economical changes, a new way of looking at services and new types of conflict are forecasted. Some glimpses of these changes were noticed during the Persian Gulf War. Government decision units, organisations, society and critical industries become more and more inter-networked. They rely heavily upon essential, global and converged infrastructures. Most of these infrastructures are controlled by complex information and communication technology. Society as a whole - and the "western society" in particular - depends heavily on information (global) infrastructures and should look carefully at the related threats.This paper discusses "Information Assurance", the civil defence side of "Information Warfare", and the taxonomy of threat areas in the information age in the 21st century. Currently, governments, society and industry largely neglect these upcoming information warfare threats. The paper identifies current and forecasted issues to be discussed and dealt with by politicians, governments, society and industry.