The main stages of ensuring the information security of the city of Moscow are: the definition of goals, the choice of strategies, the development and implementation of targeted programs.

At the same time, the strategy characterizes the general direction, following which it is necessary to look for ways to achieve goals, or a combination of these directions, and the program is considered as a set of activities aimed at implementing the strategy and goals. Thus, the transition to strategies is carried out directly from the goals that need to be achieved by this system in the current problem situation.

The system approach determines the general scheme of ensuring information security of the city of Moscow, which is determined by the fundamental feature that the object of management is the solution of unstructured or weakly structured problems in the life of the city of Moscow. In the course of solving such problems, it is necessary to perform five fundamental tasks: to give a complete description of the problem situation; to study possible ways to solve the problem; to develop (choose) strategies for solving the problem; formation of a set of measures of the problem solving program; development of the target program and management of its implementation.

The first task — analysis of the problem situation-provides a description of the main elements: the problem situation in the information security system of the city of Moscow, the problem subsystem, factors, consequences, external conditions, as well as internal characteristics of the system. A characteristic feature of problem analysis is that it is carried out in conditions of limited information about the characteristics of objects that are somehow related to the existence of the problem and its solution. Therefore, most quantitative assessments describing the structure of the problem and ways to solve it will be of an expert evaluation nature.

From the standpoint of the proposed approach, the entire information security system of the city of Moscow is considered as a problem system, in the functioning of subsystems of which inefficiency is revealed, which is expressed in low values of the parameters of the entire system. The list and levels of these parameters represent one of the most important characteristics of the problem situation.

According to the conditionality of the problem situation, existing problems can be divided into the following main types:

• problems that arise due to the fact that the possibility of improving the system’s operation has been identified;
• situations and problems that arise due to unforeseen circumstances (natural disasters, deliberate destructive actions and other circumstances in relation to the system under consideration);
• conflict situations and issues that for some reason cannot be resolved in accordance with the established procedure;
• problems that arise as a result of the fact that the set goals and objectives are not achieved for reasons of unsatisfactory operation of the system and its subsystems or because of the unreality of the goals set for the system.

Problems of the latter group arise when there are shortcomings in the system that prevent the achievement of the goal, or a mismatch of goals.

The first case is that the activity of the system to ensure the information security of the metropolis for one reason or another does not meet the requirements.

In the second case can be two reasons: the first is the change in external or internal to the system and the second – set system goals are too easily attainable or hardly achievable.

Problem situations that arise in the process of strategic management, and the resulting problems and methods of their consideration are a kind of class, little studied theoretically. At the same time, they are almost daily resolved by the heads of different levels.

It seems reasonable all the problems arising in the process of ensuring information security of the city of Moscow, for their consideration and decision to split into two large groups: the first is the formalized problem, based on analytical type of thinking, the use of existing methods; the second is not formalized, the solution of which is based on the creative approach and thinking.

A characteristic feature of solving problems of the first group is the use of mathematical apparatus, logical and mathematical methods, legislation, rules, regulations, norms, and the use of experiments.

To solve the second group of problems, there are no standard ways and ready-made knowledge. There are many ways and approaches for their research, the number of alternative solutions can be extremely large. Some of these solutions will be better, some worse, perhaps a better solution will be found in the future.

Both of these paths in their concrete development go in parallel, sometimes closely interacting.

The analysis of the problem situation determines the formulation of the problem, which may be different due to the ambiguity of its description, as well as due to the subjective nature of the perception of this problem situation by a person or group of people, which is due to their goals and interests, as well as past experience.

The formulation of the problem is the most important step in solving the problem itself. The process of problem formulation is quite complex, since it is impossible to accurately formulate the problem based on a superficial acquaintance with the problem situation. Complex problems in ensuring information security of the city are characterized by the fact that the relationship between variables is not always clear or temporary; the variables themselves are either poorly measurable or completely immeasurable.

Usually, there are many factors associated with each problem situation, some of them are known, some of them are unknown. Therefore, different individuals solving the same problem can choose from a single set of factors that are completely different to solve the problem. This can happen even if the problem solvers (each in their own field) have the same competence.

This means that you can never be completely sure of the faultlessness of solving complex problems that arise in the field of strategic management. It is always necessary to carefully check the correctness and effectiveness of their solution in practice.

Identifying and articulating a problem is a creative process. When developing a problem to solve, it is necessary to focus on the final result that they want to achieve, taking into account at the same time what price the result will be achieved, what will have to be sacrificed, what costs will have to be incurred. It is very important to compare the short-term consequences of solving the problem and the long-term results. They can differ significantly both in their effect and in their costs. Often, immediate results and long-term results are in conflict with each other, and therefore it is necessary to make a reasonable choice between them or find the best compromise.

Various kinds of inconsistencies in the information security system of a megalopolis often occur due to insufficient or untimely receipt of information necessary for making strategic decisions, although the total amount of information is constantly increasing. Its excessive abundance affects first of all managers, because it is they who make decisions based on the information they have. Working with current information takes up to 75-80% of the manager’s time, and only 20-25% of the time is devoted to promising issues, while they, as the managers themselves believe and as confirmed by the results of research, need to be given at least 40% of the time. But it’s not just about increasing the amount of information. In our time, the complexity of information search has increased, i.e. the necessary useful information is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish in the general flow. Thus, in the problem of increasing the efficiency of ensuring the security of the metropolis, a subproblem is distinguished – information, which primarily concerns the issue of obtaining information by the management on problems that require strategic decision — making.

There is a situation when responsible strategic decisions in some cases are made according to a template, i.e. on the basis of a qualitative analysis of similar situations in the past, or on the basis of «common sense», when the experience of the past does not help. Meanwhile, often the events developing in the information security system of a megalopolis are characterized by the complexity and speed of changing the situation, when the template becomes powerless when making decisions, and relying only on «common sense» can lead to serious mistakes. In such cases, modern science recommends resorting to mathematical models to justify solutions implemented with the help of technical computing tools. Unfortunately, the management bodies have not yet mastered these methods of decision-making, and managers have not yet gained confidence in them.

The problem of evaluating the effectiveness of the information security system of the megalopolis as a whole continues to be one of the most urgent. Despite some groundwork in the development of clear ideas about the category of efficiency, many issues have not yet been resolved. The key point here is to build a system of agreed criteria and performance indicators that allow us to fully assess the degree of achievement of the goals of protecting the vital interests of the individual, society and the city.

It should be emphasized that the set of formulated problems needs deep analysis. It is useful for subsequent work in the list of problems to note their relative urgency (very urgent, urgent, non-urgent), as well as to highlight the main problems that need to be solved in the first place.