SECURITY AND CONTROL IN MIS

Why Systems Are Vulnerable

Information systems are vulnerable to technical, organizational, and environmental threats from internal and external sources. The weakest link in the chain is poor system management. If managers at all levels don't make security and reliability their number one priority, then the threats to an information system can easily become real. The figure below gives you an idea of some of the threats to each component of a typical network.

Internet Vulnerabilities

"If electronic business is to prosper and truly move into the mainstream of commerce, everyone involved — merchants, financial institutions, software vendors, and security suppliers such as VeriSign — has to make security a top priority, starting right now. Security is very hard to get right under the best of circumstances and just about impossible when it isn't the focus of attention. If the industry doesn't get this right — and fast — it's setting the stage for a catastrophic loss of confidence." (Business Week, March 26, 2001)

"A top U.S. Air Force official has warned Microsoft to dramatically improve the security of its software or risk losing the Air Force as a customer. Reacting to rising criti

cism from the Air Force and others, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates in mid-January issued a directive making security the software giant's No. 1 priority. Gates directed 7,000 programmers to spend February scouring the Windows operating system for openings hackers might exploit to steal data or shut down systems." (USA Today, March 10, 2002)

With distributed computing used extensively in network systems, you have more points of entry, which can make attacking the system easy. The more people you have using the system, the more potential for fraud and abuse of the information maintained in that system. That's why y

ou have to make it everybody's business to protect the system. It's easy for people to say that they are only one person and therefore they won't make much difference. But it only takes one person to disable a system or destroy data.

Wireless Security Challenges

It's a difficult balancing act when it comes to mak

ing wireless systems easy to access and yet difficult to penetrate. Internet cafes, airports, hotels, and other hotspot access points need to make it easy for users to use the network systems with the 802.11 standard. Yet, because it is so easy, hackers and crackers can easily access unsuspecting users' systems and steal data or use the entry point as a way to spread malicious programs. The hackers can use war driving techniques to gain access to wireless networks not only in hotels and airports, but private businesses and government centers.

NOOPUR GARG

BBA/4536/07