A review of secure emergency communications technical and organisational aspects

In organizations responsible for emergency management there is a growing need to develop deep understanding for how communications between emergency actors can be secured and improved. In this paper we examine the current body of knowledge in the field of secure emergency communications in order understand the role of information security in the emergency context? Our study shows that while technical developments aim at effective and secure technologies, organizational aspects of emergency communications seem to involve not only emergency management actors, but also how these actors more and more utilize information technology for emergency management. Hence, the scene or landscape for emergency management is becoming more complex, which indeed challenge the way that secure emergency communications can be understood. We apply Giddens’ structuration theory as a vehicle to understand the technological and organizational dimensions of emergency management. Our main conclusion is that there is a need for better theoretical integration between technology use and organizational systems in emergency management.