The 5 Waves of Information Security - From Kristian Beckman to the Present

This paper gives an overview of the development of Information Security from the early 1980s up to the present time. The paper makes use of two papers by the author, Information Security – the Third Wave (von Solms, 2000) and Information Security – the Fourth Wave (von Solms, 2006), as well as a paper in preparation, Information Security – The Fifth Wave (von Solms, 2010). In the paper in 2000, the First Wave of Information Security was defined as lasting up to the early 1980s. In May 1983 the First International Conference on Information Security (IFIP/Sec 83) took place in Sweden, and was organized by Kristian Beckman. Kristian Beckman was subsequently elected as the first Chairperson of the newly created Technical Committee 11 of IFIP. He died in 1984. Kristian Beckman can therefore be seen to have lived during the First Wave of Information Security, which provides the motivation for the sub title