Gartner's Information Security In E-Business World - Industry Trend or Event

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, April 24, 2000

Information security is fast becoming the hottest technology issue, growing hand-in-hand with e-business and wireless technologies.

These topics will be explored in depth at Information Security in an E-Business World, a conference that will be presented by Gartner Group Inc. (NYSE: IT and ITB) from June 7-9, 2000, at the Sheraton in New Orleans. Keynote speakers include Chris Zoladz, vice president of information protection at Marriott International Inc.; Pulitzer-Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who will present "Industrial Espionage, Echelon and the National Security Agency"; and Rev. Canon William Johnson, Ph.D., professor of philosophy at Brandeis University, who will explore personal privacy, ethics and the impact of information technology (IT) on Western civilization.

According to Gartner, 95 percent of transactions today are completed with the use of a credit card. Despite a few recent, highly visible hacking incidents involving the use of credit cards, the global Internet community has been quickly taking security measures to save this convenient form of e-commerce. As business-to-business and business-to-consumer communities interact on intranets, extranets and the Internet, the security issues spread quickly to questions of privacy, the ability to prevent hacking, server and data integrity, and password protection. Digital due diligence has become a cost of doing business today. Whether to address sensitive data traveling wireless or an ex-employee tampering with personnel records, the information security industry offers new strategies and tools that keep information security officers and CIOs ahead of the technology curve.

"There will always be a criminal or negligence risk to any type of business," says Vic Wheatman, vice president and research director for Gartner, and conference chair. "Successful IT professionals are much more attuned to the benefits of preventative information security planning."