This article is the result of a research project on information security and protection of sensitive data in Colombia and Chile, since information security is a fundamental issue for the protection of individuals' and companies' data, especially when said information is contained in an unregulated environment such as the Internet, and when countries under development such as Colombia and Chile are close to implementing electronic government. The regulations and the current state of the protection of sensitive data in both countries will be analyzed in this paper, using as a reference the good data protection practices defined by the European Union and the United States. Additionally, the paper reviews information security and data protection within the Ministry of Information Technology and Communication analyzing the likelihood of threats to the integrity, confidentiality and availability of information in the notification process to determine whether Colombia is prepared to guarantee flexible on-line procedures online as well as secure information and legal certainty to citizens.