The Profession Of Information Systems Auditing Essay

Modern organizations that utilize technology must now use their resources to protect themselves from malicious cybercrime activities. A “hacker” could illegally intrude into an organizations information network and use accounting software to mine information and steal assets at a relatively low risk of being caught.

In today’s IT world every organization has a responsibility to protect the information and sensitive data they have. Protecting data is not only responsibility of security and IT staff but every individual is involved in protecting the information. The risks to information security are not digital only, but it involves technology, people and process that an organization may have. These threats may represent the problems that are associated to complex and expensive solution, but doing nothing about these risks is not the solution.

This case study, written in 2009 is not the only case where a major data breach has occurred within organizations. In the late 2011 Sony’s PlayStation Network (PSN) was breached impacting up to 77 million user’s accounts including data on names, address and possibly credit card details. In late 2013 Target had a cyber-attack that compromised a large quantity of its data and had 110 million accounts compromised. Finally in September 2014 Apple had their iCloud server breached by hacking that compromised all the users of the online server. These occurrences still have some unanswered questions and several experts have yet to decipher the actual reason as to why the security breach occurred.

In the Data breach Investigation report of 2012, the compromised records 174 million security incidents from all over the world were analyzed also the investigation confirmed 855 data breaches. The attacks were carried out from 19 different nations and affected all kinds of organizations small and large.

In today’s modern society, to which a well-developed information technology has been applied, it is getting more and more inevitable to use it in our everyday life, since people can store and access to their private information in one place without difficulty. However, this is also the danger of it, as it has become much easier for a third-party to collect and steal information online. Consequently, many cautious company and institutions are aware and well prepared for the potential cyber data hack attacks. (Bennett, 1992)

Data breaches like these have serious implications for the business operations and could even lead to the collapse of the whole system, where the law is applicable the Company’s systems are put under supervision to make sure they meet the newest regulation for financial data protection and regular auditing to make sure the system is stable and secure.

Now a day, companies are focusing and investing more on IT security, where the company’s and customers’ personal and financial information managing and storing. Certainly, more cost involves in this process. Companies who failed in security breach prevention paid and paying huge amount. Example for this is Target. This multinational grocery stores company’s data breached in 2013 this affecting its business. Furthermore, by 2015 nearly 1000 Target employees lost their jobs and the company is facing legal suits from bankers and customers.

While all of these technologies have enabled exciting changes and opportunities for businesses, they have also created a unique set of challenges for business managers. Chief among all concerns about technology is the issue of information security. It seems to be almost a weekly occurrence to see a news article about yet another breach of security and loss of sensitive data. Many people will remember high profile data breaches from companies such as T.J Maxx, Boston Market, Sports Authority, and OfficeMax. In the case of T.J. Maxx, a data breach resulted in the loss of more than 45 million credit and debit card numbers. In many of these incidents, the root cause is a lack of adequate security practices within the company. The same technologies that enable managers can also be used against them. Because of this, businesses must take appropriate steps to ensure their data remains secure and their communications remain

Information security is vital in organizations; more so in this era where terrorism and hacking are the order of the day. The cost of ensuring a reliable information security is high (Gulati, p.2-3). However, cyber-attacks can vary in costs and outweigh the process of security measures in place to protect information (Manske, p.55). The cost of reputation after an attack can be a major blow to the running of an organization. For instance, if an attacker access credit card information the customers may withdraw from the company or refrain from its services. Court cases against the loss of confidential information may spoil the reputation of a company . When the computer systems have been accessed illegally, the systems must be inspected, fixed and re-secured. Hackers publicly expose the hacked information; clients, sellers and investors may avoid associating with the

The use of information technology in business presents major security challenges, poses serious ethical question, and affects society in significant ways. Especially, the computer crime is a growing threat to society and is caused by the criminal or irresponsible actions of individuals who are taking advantage of the widespread use and vulnerability of computers and the Internet and other networks. It presents a major challenge to the integrity, safety, and survival of most business systems.

In this article based on personal information stolen by others, Ayyagari argues that data breaches is the biggest problem for everyone because it is affecting us on a daily basis. Humans are exposed to opportunities for data breaches which cause identity theft. The author presents numerical data along with statistics to prove how data breaches is increasing each year and what policies security systems are enforcing to prevent cyber incidents.

Computer security breaches have been occurred in too many places since information technology is used. Security practitioners declare that those breaches incident cost vast businesses that is estimated more than $1 billion, according to Pinsent Masons, (2014). There are also non-financial costs that companies may suffer. Figure 1 is illustrated World's Biggest Data Breaches that happened last decade.

“The cyber security landscape has changed in the past couple of years – and not for the better” (Steen, 2013). Banks are faced with attacks to retrieve customer account information, the military battles with attempts to obtain secrets. These attacks are not just committed by induvial hackers but entire countries. Data privacy rules differ from country to country. For example, Fisher, 2014 states individual search engine access is restricted in different ways depending on the country. China along with other countries restrict access to politically sensitive information, while the United States protects the free flow of information (Gonzalez-Padron, 2014). With companies relying more on technology such as cloud computing and virtual storage their level of vulnerability rises. IT personnel have the difficult task of protecting company data, this is why it is vital to have an ethical compliance program in place protect the organization from internal and external threats.

The analysis of 2,260 breaches and more than 100,000 incidents at 67 organizations in 82 countries shows that organizations are still failing to address basic issues and well-known attack methods. The (DBIR, 2016) shows, for example, that nearly two-thirds of confirmed data breaches involved using weak, default or stolen passwords. Also shows that most attacks exploit known vulnerabilities that organizations have never patched, despite patches being available for months – or even years – with the top 10 known vulnerabilities accounting for 85% of successful exploit “Organizations should be investing in training to help employees know what they should and shouldn’t be doing, and

Almost all kind of large and small organizations might face increasing number of attacks into their network or intellectual property. This may lead to data disclosure, data destruction, and damage of organization’s reputation. There are numerous threats in the cyber space which might be capable of stealing, destroying or making use of out sensitive data for financial and non-financial gains. As the amount of computer, mobile and internet users increases, so does the number of exploiters.