Information security is important in proportion to an organization's dependence on information technology. When an organization's information is exposed to risk, the use of information security technology is obviously appropriate. Current information security technology, however, deals with only a small fraction of the problem of information risk. In fact, the evidence increasingly suggests that information security technology does not reduce information risk very effectively.This paper argues that we must reconsider our approach to information security from the ground up if we are to deal effectively with the problem of information risk, and proposes a new model inspired by the history of medicine.

A practical technique for delegation is described. It provides both cryptographic assurance that a delegation was authorized and authentication of the delegated systems, thereby allowing reliable access control as well as precise auditing of the systems involved in every access. It goes further than other approaches for delegation in that it also provides termination of a delegation on demand (as when the user logs out) with the assurance that the delegated systems, if subsequently compromised, cannot continue to act on the user's behalf. Delegation and revocation are provided by a simple mechanism that does not rely on online trusted servers.>