Risk Assessment Report Report Samples

Introduction

Theoretically, Risk is the potential of loosing something for its value. Values may be defined as physical health, social status, money and the financial health (Azari, 2003). All of these mentioned values can be increased or decreased by taking risk into consideration (Azari, 2003). In other words, risk is defined as an intentional interaction with uncertainty, and may vary from person to person and industry to industry. By considering the fact that risk varies from industries to industries, therefore it has numerous types as well. Some of the major types of riskiness are Financial Risk, Business Risk and Information technology Risk. The risk associated with the technology and it may harm the potential and momentum of a company is known as risk pertains to Information Technology (Khadraoui & Gallice, 1996).
The main theme of this assignment is to write a Response Profile on one of the scenarios of Cyber Attacks and Threats on Government oriented Company. According to the scenario, the government will be releasing an unpopular policy in the near future and they are expecting attacks from the “hacktivists”. Apart from identifying the nature and sort of threats, it is also required to come up with powerful strategies form which these problems can be overcome.

Types of Cyber Attacks

Information Technology is basically a combination of two things known as information and Technology. It creates lots of opportunities for the business to flourish and tapping high amount of market at one end, but on the other hand brings lots of insecurity for their business, if they are unable to maintain a powerful significance (Khadraoui & Herrmann, 2007).
Cyber threats, commonly known as Cyber Attacks is a type of offense maneuvered by individuals or the organizations to devastate the operations of the other organization from an anonymous source, and it is known as one of biggest forms of risk associated with the information technology. The amount as well as intensity of the cyber crimes varies from industry to industry (Kim & Adeli, 2010). Most of the times, Banking and Financial institution’s industry became the real victim of these hacktivists, however the security measures of the banking officials and management are too tight and stringent, therefore it is not easy to break or overcome on the them easily. From the past two decades the amount and severity of the cyber attacks have been increasing heavily in all over the world that made it very important for the companies to maintain their workability in the industry (Kim & Adeli, 2010).
Apart from the financial institutions, Government organizations and networks are on the hit list of the hackers (Kurihara, 2008). According to the scenario, there is a Government Network which is expecting to release an unpopular policy for their neighbor countries in the future that might not digest by some of the hackers and started activities of hacktivists (Kurihara, 2008). Before proceeding towards the reduction of cyber threats, it is very important for the assignment to have a list of all sorts of cyber attacks that can expect to attack over the Government Network (Martinez, Garcia & Marin-Lopez, 2014).

Extend of Problem (Global)

As discussed earlier that cyber attacks are the one that used to derail the momentum of the organizations completely (Martinez, Garcia & Marin-Lopez, 2014). Government based organizations are highly sophisticated and complex, and their securities should be the first priorities of a country. There are numerous partners of Government agencies, like Nuclear Power, Treasury, Civil Services, Intelligence, organizational details and others. The intensity and reason of the Cyber Attacks on all of such Governmental organizations are there due to the following reasons (Martinez, Garcia & Marin-Lopez, 2014)
Agency + Social Media (the Role of Agencies Partners)

It Uses to Theft the Data

The aforementioned partners and agencies are the backbone of a country, and obviously no country can afford to have a low security measures related to these agencies (Martinez, Garcia & Marin-Lopez, 2014). Most of the hackers initiated hacktivists activities just to get the data of the civil services and intelligence services of other countries. Most of the times, this particular activity initiated among two close rivals of each other, such as India and Pakistan, the two neighbors but with ineffective sign of effectiveness among them. It might happen that the hackers from both of the companies try to theft some of the valuable information related to their civil services or intelligence to detail the morale of the other country (Martinez, Garcia & Marin-Lopez, 2014).
The intensity of stealing the data can be so powerful and it may derail the entire operations of the country heavily. Hackers leave a sort of data mining software in the market towards the other country’s governmental functions to check its functionality and security measures (Oliva, 2004). If the security measures of the other country is powerful enough to combat with these hacking signals then it might not hurt the country, but any sort of insecurity can endanger the life of the country completely. The information that will be theft can be used for the terrorism and other illegal activities; therefore it is very important for the Government Agencies to have a powerful network of individuals who are well aware with all of the cyber threats and attacks that may hurt them (Quigley, 2005). Most of the times, it is found that cyber attacks in terms of stealing of data is initiated to manipulate and change the data just to make things out of way for the company. In the current scenario, there is a technology named as Cloud Computing in which the data has been saved in a non-physical disk or drive but on a system named as Cloud Computing (Slay & Koronios, 2006). It has number of advantages, but it is not safe for the Government agencies to put their data on the cloud, as the associated probability of cyber attack and theft on such data set is very high that may a bad impact over the company. Apart from the data of the civil services and intelligence, there are certain data that associated with the Nuclear Programs of a country that will try to steal of a country (Slay & Koronios, 2006).
Initiating hacktivists activities for stealing the nuclear programs and their formulas is a real danger term because nuclear assets can be extremely insecure and harmful if a person who is not capable of handling steals it through the Cyber Crimes. Obama Administration threatened different countries of the world including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and others to save their nuclear assets from the cyber crimes; otherwise they will bring very harmful and dangerous results for the entire world. Therefore, it is very important for the technological experts to equip them with all the latest technology to overcome on all the illegal activities initiated through the Cyber Crimes (Slay & Koronios, 2006).

It Used to Transfer the Funds Illegally

Fund Transfer though a legal activity, but it is sometimes used with illegal manners and by initiating illegal activities. One of the major types of illegal fund transfer is Money laundering, and it is referred as a big crime in most of the countries of the world (Slay & Koronios, 2006). Government Treasury Department, especially the government related banks and financial institutions are always on the brink of this particular risk, as they lots of amount and foreign reserves in them. It is a very serious cyber attack and it may push a country towards severe problems and poverty, if it is not managed accordingly (Swanson, 1998).
Financial institutions usually interlinks with each other through a SWIFT Code, which also known as International Bank Account Number (IBAN) through a person in other country can transfer the money to another country through a proper payment channel known as Global Wire Transfer (GWT). On one hand, this particular service is extremely effective and valuable for the economies to have ease in the fund management and transfer, however the association of risk with all of these transactions are very high, and it needed to have a strong eye from the government to overcome on all of such insecurity and problems accordingly (Swanson, 1998). Most of the times hackers pointed out those accounts which are dormant and there was no activity performed in the bank from last 5 to 10 years (Swanson, 2002). The main reason behind choosing and assaulting on these bank accounts is that banks often forget to apply high security measures against those bank accounts which are intact. Hacktivists try to take out the password or pin code of fund transfer and transferred the amount in a fake bank account through which they can steal all the money (Martinez, Garcia & Marin-Lopez, 2014). After theft of money through illegal transfer, it is very difficult for the countries to retrieve back the amount, because the information of transferring the funds to the other account is most of the time vague and fake. This particular partner of the Government is always on a high security measure area through which they can initiate a tradeoff to operate accordingly. Therefore powerful security measures are required to nullify all the negative effects of such illegal activities and crimes over the country (Martinez, Garcia & Marin-Lopez, 2014).

It used to Demoralize and Derail the Organizations

Every country has some giants’ organizations in it, which have been referred as their assets (Martinez, Garcia & Marin-Lopez, 2014). These giants’ organizations are the backbone for every economy of the world. Most of the times, Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) organizations come under the same ambit, and government has the right to retain the valuable and important information related to these companies with them. However, all of this information is subject to have a cyber crime attack from different hackers to steal the important facts, figures and data merely to demoralize and derail the values of the organizations (Martinez, Garcia & Marin-Lopez, 2014). Obviously, a giant organization will have a powerful system to combat all of these mishaps hence it will not affect them financially, but it may waste the valuable time of the organizations that have a direct impact over the financial structure and information of the companies (Khadraoui & Herrmann, 2007).
Attacks on organization usually initiated through the Password Attacks, and it intends to crack the victim’s password, so that the attacker may obtain an access to a secured system. This type of cyber attack is typically used an end-all method that merely use to crack a difficult password. Cracking of password is known as a Brute-Force Attach in the language of Cyber Crime in a hacker use all possible combination of numbers, letters and symbol to have the password (Khadraoui & Herrmann, 2007). Organizations are advised to take care of all of these illegal activities and crimes to have a positive momentum for a long span of time.

Strategies to Reduce Impact

The main objective highlights in this particular assignment is not only about highlighting the cyber crimes and hacktivists for the Governmental organizations which usually have lots of partners and social media contacts, but it is more likely to have powerful recommendations to overcome on these problems comprehensively (Khadraoui & Herrmann, 2007).

Hiring the Best Talent in the Information Technology Department

It is recommended to the Government organization to hire the best available talent within their technological department in order to cope up with all of the problems mentioned above. Talent is not scared; the only thing required is to search and findings (Khadraoui & Herrmann, 2007). One of the best methods that introduced by many companies of the world is to use practical tests before hiring the individuals. It is very important for the companies to have a transparent hiring process. After hiring the individuals, it is very important for the Government organization is to furnish the objectives of their company in front of their newly hired professionals (Khadraoui & Gallice, 1996). Furnish them regarding their existence and value for the company, and how their talent can be used for sustaining the company for a long span of time. Training and Development is the third most important activity that should be initiated by the governmental organization to reduce the impact of cyber crimes. Special training should be given to them from which the employees have the guts to combat all of such problems which are derailing their morale and momentum in the future. Training and Development not only empowers the newly hired individuals to contribute accordingly in the productivity of the company, but it also used to direct the performance of the existing employees of the company with a positive mindset.

Strengthen the Security Checks

It is very important for the government officials to have a tight security check over their organization, and its policies. The government is likely to introduce a policy, and they will certainly have lots of external attacks from different countries of the world (Khadraoui & Gallice, 1996). It is recommended to the officials to have powerful security measures within their operations. The security checks must be testified lots of time in order to overcome on all the challenges after their implementation. Every concerned person should be aware with all of these security checks in order to contribute their existence in reducing the effects of the cyber assaults.

Countermeasures Framework

Welcome the Initiatives
Communication is an important part of an organization as far as their productivity and level of efficacy is concerned. Likewise corporations, government entities should have sound level of communication within their management and the employees (Martinez, Garcia & Marin-Lopez, 2014). It has been observed that employees have powerful recommendations and innovative ideas that can help out an organization to leap out from the problems and issues completely (Martinez, Garcia & Marin-Lopez, 2014). Therefore, it is recommended to the government to welcome every initiative and innovative idea from different partners should be consider and welcome. The policy which the government is willing to initiate and undertake in the future should be communicated with their different partners, and let them speak the pros and cons of the policy. Ask them and communicate them to have some innovative and powerful solutions from which the government can become able to reduce the problems that may arise from the cyber attacks.

Laws and Proposal Laws

High Punishment for Culprits
In the Middle East, there is a model known as Punishment model, through which a culprit think twice or thrice before committing a fraud or illegal activity. The government has to become stringent in their actions and should come up with strict regulations and activities against any culprit found compromising the ethics of the country. The level of punishment should be long and strict, so it will become a sort of example in front of the people who are thinking to initiate the same in the future (Martinez, Garcia & Marin-Lopez, 2014).

Conclusion

Information technology is basically an application of computers and telecommunication based equipments. It uses to retrieve, accesses, store, transmit and manipulate the data in the context of a business or any other enterprise. Information technology has now come up as a pre-requisite to provide effectiveness to the companies, however the technology sometime bring ineffectiveness for the companies. At one place, globalization brings positivity in the operations of the companies, while on the other hand it increases the amount of technological irregularities. One of the irregularities which have been highlighted in this particular analysis is Cyber Crime or Cyber Attacks. In this assignment it is required to take part in the scenario of strengthen the Government based operations with a positive mindset. The government is intending to launch a policy that may be attacked by the international hackers. There are numerous sort of cyber attacks are possible on the government for different purposes highlighted in the aforementioned text. However, by considering the measures, the organization may become able to overcome on these threats accordingly and completely.

References

Azari, R. (2003). Current security management & ethical issues of information technology. Hershey: IRM Press.
Khadraoui, D., & Gallice, J. (1996). La commande référencée vision pour le guidage automatique de véhicules. [S.l.]: [s.n.].
Khadraoui, D., & Herrmann, F. (2007). Advances in enterprise information technology security. Hershey PA: Information Science Reference.
Kim, T., & Adeli, H. (2010). Advances in computer science and information technology. Berlin: Springer.
Kurihara, Y. (2008). Information technology and economic development. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.
Martinez, A., Garcia, F., & Marin-Lopez, R. (2014). Architectures and protocols for secure information technology infrastructures. Hershey PA: Information Science Reference, an imprint of IGI Global.
Oliva, L. (2004). IT security. Hershey [Pa.]: CyberTech Pub.
Oliva, L. (2004). IT solutions series. Hershey, Pa.: CyberTech Pub., an imprint of Idea Group.
Quigley, M. (2005). Information security and ethics. Hershey PA: IRM Press.
Slay, J., & Koronios, A. (2006). Information technology security & risk management. Milton, Qld: Wiley Australia.
Swanson, M. (1998). Guide for developing security plans for information technology systems. Gaithersburg, MD: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Technology Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Swanson, M. (2002). Contingency planning guide for information technology systems. Gaithersburg, Md.: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Technology Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology.