Security-Based Knowledge Management

Abstract

As knowledge is recognized as intellectual (or intangible) assets that can enhance an organization’s competitive capability, how to effectively manage knowledge assets has become an important issue in the information age (Alavi, 2000). Literature in knowledge management (KM) emphasizes issues on knowledge creation, knowledge codification, knowledge sharing, and knowledge utilization; however, security perspectives on assuring knowledge confidentiality and knowledge integrity are left unaddressed. This article takes an initial step to address different perspectives of security centric knowledge management. This article first presents the background of security-based knowledge management. It then discusses sources of security threats in knowledge-based organizations and identi- fies challenges in four aspects of knowledge management practices, which are culture-based, strategy-based, contentbased (or standard-based), and technology-based, along with a discussion of 10 corresponding security domains. Real-world cases are intertwined with the challenges faced by knowledge-based organizations. This article ends with further envisioning the future trends of the security-based knowledge management.