ABSTRACT
In the late 1990s, the US government’s leadership was driven by the great epiphany-the dawn of the information agethat set in motion the creation of a new virtual frontier driven primarily by the advent of the World Wide Web. This new frontier took on the name cyberspace, and its impact on how we live our daily lives is immeasurable. This new cyberworld had a dramatic impact on national security and the world of business, redefining the very fabric of the global business landscape and trends toward globalization and cross-border integration. Stretching far beyond the boundaries of business, the information age became the catalyst for the knowledge age, driven principally by innovation and the insatiable appetite for unfettered access to unlimited information at any point or any time in the world. Subsequently, the need to effectively harness, manage, monitor, and secure the rapid evolution of this infocentric frontier and the virtual global information grid has involved a monolithic effort that remains a chief concern for the nation’s security and economic well-being. Beyond
the immediate concern of national security and the government’s increasing reliance on and proliferation of information technology (IT) is the need to effectively manage the daunting amount of information and knowledge available on the grid.
