Categorizing Security for Security Management and Information Resource Management

There are various definitions and dimensions of security, and there is no comprehensive taxonomy of security. The existing classifications of security are fragmented, scattered, and divergent, binging challenges in the management of security and the management of information resources about security. This research aims to study the problems of security categorization in existing knowledge organization systems, and to develop a comprehensive taxonomy of security. Through thematic analysis of the literature about security, we found that, despite the various definitions and dimensions of security, there is a common feature of security. That is, security is expressed in this pattern: subject wants to protect object against source of insecurity using certain methods. Through facet analysis, we identified four facets of security – subject/scope of security, object of protection, source of insecurity, and method of security. By nesting the four facets to reveal the content of comprehensive security terms (such as national security, human security), we can build comprehensive taxonomies of security for various user groups. This paper develops a tetra-facet model of security, and demonstrates the application of thematic analysis and facet analysis to solve a complex problem of security categorization.