Investigating Information Security Effectiveness after an Extreme Event

This research in progress investigates the antecedents of effective Information Security (IS) of an organization following an extreme event. The motivation for this research is the rife of information security incidents, which pose increasing risks to business continuity especially in the aftermath of an extreme event when organizations may lack sufficient resources to effectively safeguard their networks. A sample size of 207 survey responses was gathered from 10 organizations. The results show that Incident Command Leadership (ICL) and employee empowerment have a positive influence with IS effectiveness. The relationship between organizational resilience and IS effectiveness was not supported. These preliminary findings have implications for information security and business continuity theories. The findings also have implications for practice. Keywords—information security effectiveness; health information security; extreme events; emergency preparedness