Cryptojacking and Operations Management in Billabong International Limited
Discuss about the Knowledge Retention in Service Industry.
Operations Management is indicative of an area of management that deals with the production of business operations in relation to goods or that of services. It can help to ensure that the operations pertaining to business are effective and it is concerned with the managing of the entire production system. Industry 4.0 is indicative of the current trend in relation to automation along with data exchange within the manufacturing technologies. It is also referred to as the “smart factory” and it refers to the ability of the machines along with devices in connecting people. Billabong International Limited refers to a clothing retailer that is instrumental in producing different kinds of accessories like watches along with backpacks. This report throws light on the IT security issues of Billabong International Limited. It discusses the lapse in relations to operations management of the organization on the basis of my observation and the planning along with contingency plan that can help in solving the problem.
The IT systems have become the backbone of the society and these systems if vulnerable poses a threat to that of the individuals along with the companies. The malwares lead to operations management problem in Billabong International Limited and the attackers in the present age are trying to find new ways that can help them in getting around the established defense (Heizer 2016). Cryptojacking in Billabong International Limited has threatened the computer system of Billabong and JavaScript cryptocurrency has hijacked the CPU power of the organisation. The criminals are making use of ransomware-like tactics so that the computers of the employees of the company can mine cryptocurrency. The hackers made the victim to click on a link that is malicious and on the clicking of the link the entire system of the employee gets affected. Crypto-mining code started working in the back ground and the unsuspected victim of Billabong International Limited stayed unaware of this when they were operating their computers normally. The employees could not properly notice that their computers were slowing down that added to the problem. The lag pertaining to execution helped in revealing the problems in relation to operations management. Technical skills are not much required for crypto jacking and one can get hold of the crytojacking kits very easily. The hackers would be able to gain more amount of money in return of lesser amount of risk and hence this process was resorted to by the hackers of Billabong International Limited (Jacobs, Chase & Lummus 2014). In the event of crytojacking, risk pertaining to being identified is a lot less as compared to ransomware and hence this compounded the problem for the organisation. The cryptomining code infected the computer systems of the employees of Billabong International Limited and it ran surreptitiously and went undetected for a long time. This created problems related to operations management for the company and the management of the company found themselves in a grave situation.
The Impact of Cryptojacking on Billabong International Limited
Cryptojacking can work off the browser of the user and it can be plugged into that of the popular websites. The hackers inserted low-risk malware that targeted the individual computers. It then made use of the resources from the computer of the visitor by making use of their browser. The malware was inserted in the online portal of Billabong International Limited and this gave rise to problems. The portals of Billabong International are visited by many people and there are many users who log into the portal. All the users who were accessing the portal got their computer infected. The clothing retailer got infected and personal data related to the organization were siphoned off that had a big impact on the performance of the firm (Jay & Barry 2016). Crypto jacking created technology disruptions in the computers of Billabong International Limited. It affected the Windows Operating system of the computer along with that of Mac OSX along with android. The internal network of Billabong International had restricted access to that of internet and suddenly the starters started communicating with various external IP address. The industrial control systems need high processor availability and any kind of effect on it can pave the path for serious safety concern for the company (Haksever & Render 2018). The sophistication pertaining to the attack has made it all the more difficult to trace the hackers associated with the crime. The mining malware affected the clothing retailer and it spread internally. It moved laterally from that of the remote monitoring server to that of other people. The mining malware was installed in the computer of the victim and it made use of the computing resources to mine the crypto currencies in the systems of the organization (Gonzalez 2016).
Cryptojacking occurs when the website gets compromised that can help in injecting the cryptojacking malware. Once the malware was placed in the website of Billabong International Limited the visitors to that of the site began the process of mining of the cryptocurrency on the part of the cyber-criminal who had initially placed it over there. The hackers were not simply attacking that of the public cloud for stealing sensitive data but it was hijacking the cloud system so that it could mine the cryptocurrency like that of Bitcoin in the system of Billabong International Limited (Sempreboni & Viganò 2018). Billabong International Limited lacks that of skilled security experts and hence they were more reactive as compared to being pro-active with the aspect of problem solving. Billabong International Limited have not done long-term planning and this proved to be a major cause for the occurrence of cryptojacking to take place. The occurrence of crytojacking resulted in turnover among the employees as they could not meet deadlines on account of interruptions taking place due to the breaking of technology (Stokel-Walker 2018).
Solutions to the IT Security Issues in Billabong International Limited
The transformation model in relation to operations management helps in the delivering of goods along with services that is produced by that of an organization. The transformational model in relations to operations management lays stress on the three components of input, transformation process along with output. It helps in controlling the processes that can transform the resources into that of the finished goods. Capacity Management is indicative of the practice that can help in right-sizing the IT resources so that it can help in meeting the future needs pertaining to the organization (Sampson 2018). Effective capacity management can prove to be a proactive method and it can help in ensuring that the business needs of the organization have been met. The optimization pertaining to IT resource allocation can be achieved with the help of capacity management. It can help in the creation of a model that can help in the process of understanding the future resource needs pertaining to the company.
Total quality management refers to a continuous process that can help in the elimination of the errors in relation to manufacturing. Total Quality Management can be taken recourse to in Billabong International that can help in improving the experience of the customers and it hold all the parties accountable that can help in removing the operations management problem in Billabong International. A mission should be developed in Billabong International that can help in warding off the evils related to cryptojacking. The capacity management skills in relation to the IT staff of the organisation should be tested that can help in solving these issues. It can take recourse to the tools along with software that can help in mitigating the risks related to cryptojacking (Roberts & Gollob 2018). The three important components in relation to the operations management like people, process along with tools should be established that can help in the identification of any kind of necessary work that can consolidate the performance tools (Fernandes et al. 2014). The capacity management system of Billabong International should focus on the aspect of service capacity management that can help in the developing of a capacity plan. It can help in addressing both the current capacity along with that of performance issues. The process of capacity management can help in definition of the metrics that can be made use of during service operation for measuring (Fennelly 2016). The capacity management system can help in managing the resource performance in such a way that the service can meet that of service level agreement.
Operational planning is indicative of a process that can help the organization in meeting the strategic goals and it lays down the conditions that can help in ensuring the success of the organization. The operational plans contains the clear objectives that can help in ensuring that the quality standards in relation to the organization have been met. Cross-departmental dialogue can help in the making of an operational plan that can help in monitoring the progress in relation to the organization. The cryptojacking threat can be incorporated in the security awareness training of Billabong International that can help in the process of focusing on phishing-related attempts (Gupta 2015). It can help in loading the scripts into that of the users of the computers. Training can prove to be a vital solution for Billabong International Limited in case of failure of technical solutions. It is phishing that can help in being the primary method that can help in delivering of malwares of different kinds. Training however cannot prove to be much effective because it cannot direct the users regarding which are the websites that should not be visited. An ad-blocking or that of anti-cryptomining extension can be installed in the web browser that can help in minimizing the risk relating to cryptojacking (Ahmed & Hossain 2014). The cryptojacking scripts are delivered with the help of web advertisements and installation of an ad blocker can serve to be a useful way that can help in the prevention of crypto-jacking. The web-filtering tools in relation to Billabong International Limited should be kept updated and in the event of recognizing any cryptojacking scripts the users should be blocked from visiting that site again (Chelli 2015). A mobile device management solution can help in the process of controlling the devices of the users. This can help in the process of managing the apps along with extensions on that of the devices of the users. Cryptojacking can adversely affect the organization despite best efforts made for stopping it. There can be a rise in relation to help-desk complaint and this should be taken of in relation to Billabong International Limited.
Conclusion:
Crytojacking will pave the path for collapsing the computer system within Billabong International Limited and it led to the hijacking of the CPU power pertaining to the organization. Ransom-ware like techniques have been employed by the hackers that can pave the path for the criminals of mining cryptocurrency. One can easily get hold of the cryptojacking kits and this made it easier for the hackes to get inside the computer system of Billabong International Limited. Capacity Management can help Billabong International in dealing with the threat. A model can thus be created that can help in allocating the future resources in relation to the company. The operational plan can be made with the help of cross-departmental dialogue that can aid in the process of monitoring progress within organization.
References:
Ahmed, M. & Hossain, M.A., 2014. Cloud computing and security issues in the cloud. International Journal of Network Security & Its Applications, 6(1), p.25.
Chelli, K., 2015, July. Security issues in wireless sensor networks: attacks and countermeasures. In Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering (Vol. 1, pp. 1-3).
Fennelly, L., 2016. Effective physical security. Butterworth-Heinemann.
Fernandes, D.A., Soares, L.F., Gomes, J.V., Freire, M.M. & Inácio, P.R., 2014. Security issues in cloud environments: a survey. International Journal of Information Security, 13(2), pp.113-170.
Gonzalez, R.V.D., 2016. Knowledge retention in the service industry. International Journal of Knowledge Management (IJKM), 12(1), pp.45-59.
Gupta, U., 2015. Survey on security issues in file management in cloud computing environment. arXiv preprint arXiv:1505.00729.
Haksever, C. & Render, B., 2018. Service and Operations Management. World Scientific Books.
Heizer, J., 2016. Operations Management, 11/e. Pearson Education India.
Jacobs, F.R., Chase, R.B. & Lummus, R.R., 2014. Operations and supply chain management (pp. 533-535). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Jay, H. & Barry, R., 2016. Operations Management. Pearson India.
Roberts, J.D. & Gollob, M.H., 2018. Trending Now. Culture, 4, p.4.
Sampson, J., 2018. Secret digital coin mining and trading is a threat to your business. Computer Fraud & Security, 2018(4), pp.8-10.
Sempreboni, D. & Viganò, L., 2018, April. MMM: May I Mine Your Mind. In Companion of the The Web Conference 2018 on The Web Conference 2018 (pp. 1573-1576). International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee.
Stokel-Walker, C., 2018. Are you making cryptocurrency for crooks?.
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