The Safety of Data and Information Systems

We are in an information age, and data and information systems are being increasingly relied upon to support safety-related decisions. There are distinct challenges associated with managing the safety of these systems. All current safety standards are functional safety-focused, where the consequences of failure are relatively direct. With information systems, there are generally no direct or immediate pathways to an accident, and these systems and their data are often overlooked in safety cases. Whilst some industries have developed strategies for safety-related data and information systems, there is a lack of guidance within the current safety standards or any consensus for how to deal with the safety challenges that these systems present. Information systems can exist in isolation or may form parts of larger systems of systems. These may include information systems used within a data chain to produce data for other end-user information systems. This presentation looks at defining the safety context of data and information systems, provides some examples of data and information safety issues using marine electronic navigation systems and chart data as an example, and proposes some key concepts in addressing the safety of data and information systems.