Information assurance (IA).

An important discipline now emerging within the burgeoning field of information technology, information assurance (IA) covers ways to protect data by devising complex computer security systems that minimize the risk of compromising the integrity of information stored within digital resources while still maintaining accessibility. Information assurance centers on the creation and application of cutting-edge systems theory to protect and monitor the vast interconnected networks of information that process, store, retrieve, and transmit data. Information assurance seeks to devise, organize, and codify strategies for preserving the integrity, availability, and security of these sprawling reserves of often sensitive information being gathered virtually every minute by global computer systems, including business conglomerates, schools and universities, medical facilities, banking and financial institutions, and international government agencies. This emerging branch of information technology (IT) focuses specifically on ways to counter the growing and ever-more sophisticated threats posed by a variety of attack modes or at the very least to manage the numerous lethal risks posed against digital storage reservoirs, including hacking, viruses, terrorist threats, identity theft operations, phishing attacks, and highly destructive worms.