Information culture and information security of a person

Intensive development of information and communication technologies, as well as the rapid growth of the information flow contribute to the intensification of negative information influences on a person and keep the problem of information security of an individual in the foreground. The main information factors, that have a negative psychological impact on the individual, include: transition to a hypertext format of the information presentation; fragmentation of information flows; lack of essential information; availability of data inciting social, racial, national or religious intolerance and advocating cruelty; availability of unverified or deliberately false information. For the recent years Russia has adopted a number of federal laws designed to protect an individual from these threats. For example, the filtering of Internet resources is used widely. However, these measures are usually of a formal nature only, since they do not affect a person''s ability to search the data, exercise judgment in interpreting it and select the information independently. The most effective means of the information security of a person is a high level of information culture. The issue of information culture has become especially relevant due to the UNESCO transition from the information society conception to the knowledge society conception, where the knowledge is a strategic resource as a result of information processing. Development of the information culture is currently considered as one of the key purposes of the modern education. The success of its accomplishment in the course of education determines whether a person is able to interact effectively with the modern information space. A high level of information culture is essential for professional and personal development of the person.