Most Common Malware Affecting Organizational Operations
Discuss about the IS Security and Risk Management of Telstra.
An IS or information system is the specific organized system that is utilized for the purposes of collection, organization, communication, storing and finally manipulation of data or information (Laudon & Laudon, 2016). It is the proper collection of various complementary networks, which any organization or individual utilizes to filter, create, process, collect and distribute information. This particular group of elements interact with each other for properly producing information. The internal information is mainly focused with this information system and not the external information. This software is used for running a fully computerized database or any computer system. All types of data operations are much easier with IS or information system (Bajdor & Grabara, 2014). The overall management, business operations and decision making process is supported with information system and it is the subset of information and communications technology.
The following report outlines a brief discussion on the entire concept of information system for the popular Australian telecommunications organization, Telstra Corporation Ltd. This organization is eventually responsible for building as well as operating several telecommunication networks, internet access, mobile, television services, entertainment services, products and many more. It is considered as the largest organization of telecommunications in Australia. It provides information system services to its employees and customers. This report will be demonstrating on the various threats and malware that affect the operations of this organization. Moreover, the various network devices and relevant details will be eventually provided here. Various recommendations will also be provided in this report.
Malware or malicious software can be defined as the variety of several intrusive software or hostile forms (Gallagher & Sixsmith, 2014). The basic types of intrusive software are computer viruses, Trojan horses, spyware, ransom ware and many more. It is considered as one of the most dangerous software that causes problems for the business operations. This type of malicious activity could easily task up the form of executable code or scripts. It comprises of malicious intent that are eventually acting against any type of requirement for the computer users. Malware is vulnerable to all types of organizations and Telstra is one of them (Arvidsson, Holmström & Lyytinen, 2014). The basic malware threats that subsequently affect the information system as well as organizational operations of Telstra are as follows:
- i) Adware: The first and the foremost type of malware that is dangerous for the organizational operations of Telstra Corporation Ltd. is adware. It is the short form of advertising supported software. This typical software is responsible for automatically delivering advertisements (Klukas, Chen & Pape, 2014). The most significant examples of this adware mainly include several pop up ads that come on the websites or advertisements, which are displayed by the software. For the added capabilities of the spyware, the bundles are extremely dangerous than this adware. The organizational operations of Telstra are highly affected by this malware.
- ii) Bots: The second important malware type is bot. These are specific software programs that are eventually created for performing significant operations. Although, few bots are created for harmless purposes like internet auctions or video gaming, most of them are created for introducing vulnerabilities within the systems (Li, Hsieh & Rai, 2013). These malware are utilized as botnets for the DDoS attacks.
iii) Bug: A bug is the typical flaw that is responsible for producing an undesired result. These flaws are human errors and always exist within source code and compiler. The organizational operations are highly affected by this type of malware (Kadam & Onkar, 2015). The security bugs are the most dangerous types of bugs for allowing the attackers to stop the authentication of users.
- iv) Ransomware: It is the form of malware, holding a system captive for demanding a ransom. This type of malware eventually restricts the access of the users with the help of encryption of files within the hard drive or also locking the system (Stojmenovic & Wen, 2014). The user does not get any idea about the malware and gets trapped in the malware effect.
Three Types of Network Devices Used by Telstra
Telstra provides information system services to the users. Thus, they are always vulnerable to various attacks. Moreover, they utilize three distinct types of network devices within their organization (Hashizume et al., 2013). These network devices always have the risk to be exploited by various types of threats or malware. The three types of network devices that the organization of Telstra is using as follows:
- i) Routers: The first type of network device that Telstra uses is router. It is the device, which helps in forwarding data packets between various computer networks. These routers are responsible for performing the traffic functions over the Internet (Power, Sharda & Burstein, 2015). The data packet is eventually forwarded from any one router to the other. The router is being connected to several data lines from the various networks. It is considered as one of the most important networking device that is being used by Telstra. Router helps the organization in successfully performing all the networking operations.
- ii) Modems: The second networking device that this organization is using within their business is modem (Ifinedo, 2014). This particular device eventually modulates each and every carrier wave signal for the purpose of encoding digital information to transmit as well as demodulate and finally decoding the original data.
iii) Ethernet Hubs: The third significant network device that Telstra is utilizing for their business is Ethernet hub. It is the network hardware device to connect several Ethernet devices for making all of them acting together as the single network segment.
These above mentioned devices are vulnerable to various threats, destruction, abuse, system quality issues and errors (Crossler et al., 2013). The main reasons of the vulnerabilities of all these network devices include lack of firewalls within the devices. The lack of proper security measures of all these devices are the most important reasons for these vulnerabilities.
Telstra Corporation Ltd. is utilizing Windows Server 2012 for the purpose of hosting the specific organizational web site. The most significant requirements of this particular web server are reliability and availability (Peltier, 2013). The term reliability refers to the significant capability of any computer related software or hardware for consistently performing as per the specifications. The reliability of the Windows Server 2012 mainly depends on the performance of the web site. The most significant factors for the determination of reliability of this server are as follows:
- i) The first factor is that Internet connectivity is constant to the server.
- ii) The second factor for determining reliability is the maintenance of stability of server hardware as well as software systems.
iii) The final factor to properly determine the reliability of Windows Server 2012 is the environmental as well as power stability in the hosting facility (Cheminod, Durante & Valenzano, 2013).
For determining the availability of the Windows Server 2012 are as follows:
- i) The first factor is that the web server is constantly available for the organization.
- ii) The second factor is that the web server is periodically maintained and thus Windows Server 2012 is utilized by all (Singhal et al., 2013).
Telstra Corporation Ltd. is using the Microsoft Exchange server for providing the email services to all of their staffs. It is considered as one of the most effective or popular mail server that is being developed by Microsoft (Ahmed & Hossain, 2014). The operating system is Windows Server. There are various versions of this Microsoft Exchange Server. The most important factors of this mail server are to ensure confidentiality as well as integrity to the clients.
For ensuring confidentiality amongst the emails of Telstra, there are few factors. The first and the foremost factor to ensure confidentiality for Microsoft Exchange Server is that the emails are not read by any unauthorized person (Rong, Nguyen & Jaatun, 2013). The authorization or authentication is solely maintained by the factor of confidentiality. Encryption is another significant factor of the confidentiality of this Microsoft Exchange.
Reliability and Availability of Web Service
Integrity is the second important feature of Microsoft Exchange server. This feature ensures that the data does not lose its integrity and the hackers do not change the data and hence the integrity is properly maintained (Willcocks, 2013). Data integrity is extremely important for any mail server and thus Telstra is benefitted from this server.
The staff members of the IT department of this organization, Telstra have reported that there are problems in the web mail or web server. There are various threats, malware that are dangerous for the web server or web mail (Stair & Reynolds, 2013). The several important threats or malware as per their priorities are as follows:
- i) Virus: The most dangerous threat to the web server or web mail is virus. It is the kind of malicious software program or malware, which when is executed, eventually replicates itself with the help of modification of any other computer program and thus insertion of own code.
- ii) Phishing: It is the significant attempt for obtaining confidential information or data like usernames, passwords or mail details by means of disguising as the most trustworthy entity (Lee, 2014).
iii) Email Spoofing: It is the threat for creating email messages with the help of a forged sender address. It loses authenticity.
- iv) Spamming: Email spam is the e spam where all the unsolicited messages are being sent.
The IT business continuity is ensured by providing redundancy and fault tolerance. The availability of the web servers as well as email servers of Telstra Corporation Ltd. could be easily improved with the help of two significant approaches (Laudon & Laudon, 2016). The two approaches are as follows:
- i) Implementation of Sender Policy Framework: The first approach to implement a sender policy framework or SPF. The sender ID framework is also present for maintaining the authenticity of the email server and the web server. This particular approach would definitely improve the availability of these two above mentioned servers.
- ii) Securing the Application: The second approach is to secure the application. This would help in improving the web server and email server eventually. This security is from the various threats and malware. The following figure will demonstrate the clear view of the security of the application.
The organizational issues have strong impact on the IS related security or risk management. They are as follows:
- i) Secured IT Procurement
- ii) Proper Connection between IT Operations and IT Security
iii) Improving Business Efficiency
- iv) Improving Software Security (Li, Hsieh & Rai, 2013).
The impact of human factors on the IS related security or risk management. They are as follows:
- i) Proper Training
- ii) Awareness
iii) Security culture influence
- iv) Knowing Organizational Strengths and Weaknesses.
The various log records in the organization of Telstra Corporation Ltd. are utilized for the purpose of monitoring or analyzing the web server as well as email server (Peltier, 2013). These log records mainly include the security, access and event. The most common functions of the log records are AlignReservedLog, AllocReservedLog, CreateLogFile, DeleteLogFile and many more. The AlignReservedLog helps in calculating the aligned reservation size for various records. AllocReservedLog helps in allocating the aligned space for the set of reserved records. CreateLogFile and DeleteLogFile are used for creating as well as deleting a log file (Willcocks, 2013). The security, access and event of the log records help in monitoring and analyzing the problems of web server and email servers.
The audit log reports are used by Telstra for the better performance of audit analysis and thus supporting the internal investigations of the organization and indenting the operational trends or log term problems. The audit log record is the security relevant chronological set of records, which eventually provide the documentary evidence for the activity sequence affecting at the specific process, event or operation (Stair & Reynolds, 2013). The web server and the email server issues are easily solved with the help of this audit log record. There are various activities like scientific research or financial transactions for the staffs, systems and accounts of the Telstra organization. Since, it is a telecommunication company, audit log records are extremely important for them for both the attempted as well as completed accesses and services. The transactions are also traced by this. Hence, it is extremely important.
Ensuring Confidentiality and Integrity for Staff Email
The five types of network security devices that are effective for the proper control of security and threat mitigation for the organization of Telstra Corporation Ltd. are as follows:
- i) Network Switch: This network device works at the layer of LAN for the purpose of filtering the packets and finally sending them to the interface (Lee, 2014).
- ii) Bridge: The second type is the bridge. When any router connects two separate network types, a specific bridge is used for the connection of two subnetworks. This helps to control the security.
iii) Repeater: the next network security device is repeater. It amplifies the signal that it is received. It is extremely effective.
- iv) Network Router: It is the network device that helps in routing traffic from one network to another (Klukas, Chen & Pape, 2014).
- v) Modem: It is the combination of modulator and demodulator. It thus, modulates as well as demodulates the signal.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that information system is the specific software that is utilized by any organization for the purpose of performing any type of data operation. There are various kinds of information systems. The most basic example of information system is the database management system or DBMS, enterprise resource planning or ERP, expert system or ES, geographic information system or GIS and many more. These types of information systems are eventually utilized by various users for the purpose of simplifying the operation of confidential information and data. There are several components or elements of this information system. They are hardware, software, databases, procedures and complementary networks. The four components, which are hardware, software, complementary networks and databases, are the major parts of IT or information technology. The above report has clearly outlined the information system about the most popular telecommunications organization in Australia, namely Telstra Corporation Ltd. It is basically a media as well as telecommunications company that is responsible for building and operating telecommunications networks and market or voice access. There are several other services of this organization and all of them are vulnerable to various types of threats and malware. These threats could be often extremely dangerous for the organization and thus proper mitigation measures are required. Various network devices with significant mitigation policies to the threats are mentioned here. Moreover, two approaches are also given in the report.
It is recommended to the organization of Telstra Corporation to implement the IS within their business for proper execution of business operations. Moreover, the security issues or threats are properly mitigated with the help of various measures. Telstra should also implement other security measures for securing the web server as well as email server.
References
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