As the new DirectTocust IT risk manager, how will you balance the right of staff privacy, the company network and physical security?
Case study
You have recently been appointed as the new IT risk manager of a countrywide online trading
business called DirectToCust which sells items directly to the public. Its headquarters are located
in Cape Town, in the Western Cape and have warehouses in Gauteng, KZN, and the Free state. The
company employs over 200 call center agents and about 10 business managers for both inbound
and outbound transactions and logistics. They work both day and night shifts in an open-plan
workspace of around 40 x 38 m with each agent having their own desk, networked computers and
essential office stationery to conduct business. Most, if not all, call center agents’ desktop PCs are
connected to a local network using Ethernet cabling while most line managers’ laptops are
wirelessly connected to enable free movement around the premises. All the servers, switches,
router, gateways, firewalls, etc., are located at the adjacent IT office and maintained by one
network administrator and six support technicians (four dayshifts and two nightshifts), the
company opted for software-as-a-service, through various cloud computing services provider for
all their software needs and therefore the presence of IT personnel is for day-to-day business
support only. Before your recruitment, the company was experiencing a couple of complaints
such as:
1. Theft of personal belongings during working hours.
2. The network policy can be amended by the IT support team without the knowledge of the
IT administrator.
3. Employees spending more time on social media than working.
4. Theft of customers’ details for own and commercial use, using USB and other portable
storage.
5. Infected and corrupted employees and customer databases.
6. The local IT team often experiences issues when communicating with the overseas cloud
service provider team.
7. All employees must change their password every week, and as a result, many employees
who cannot memorise their new password simply write them down for safekeeping.
8. Regular firewall breaches were observed during the last couple of months and resulting in a
bottleneck and unauthorised access.
9. Some employees can easily guess their colleague's password to log in.
10. The website was recently hacked, disfigured and propaganda message posted, and it took
the local IT team 48 hours to take back control of the website.
11. Misappropriation of business funds by some employees.
12. Easy access to the server room and malicious reconfiguration of proxy-server mostly during
the night shift.
13. Managers are unable to monitor employer activities live.
14. Poor financial accountability and traceability; all managers are able to edit log files without
authorisation.
15. Information and communications were being hijacked or looked into before reaching their
destination.
Refer to the above case study:
1.3 As the new DirectTocust IT risk manager, how will you balance the right of staff
privacy, the company network and physical security?
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