Securing Information Systems
Application Exercises Note:
The existing data files referenced in these exercises are available on the book’s website: www.pearsonhighered.com/valacich.
ktiaz Spreadsheet Application: Analyzing Ethical Con–W. terns at Campus Travel
10-45.
Because of the employees’ increased use of IS resources for private purposes at Campus Travel, you have announced that a new acceptable use policy will be implemented. You have set up a website for the employees to provide feedback to the proposed change., the results of this survey are stored in the file EthicsSurvey.csv.
Your boss wants to use the survey results to find out what the greatest concerns in terms of ethical implications are for the employees, so you are asked to do the following:
Complete the spreadsheet to include descriptive sta-tistics (mean, standard deviation, mode, minimum, maximum, and range) for each survey item. Use formulas to calculate all statistics for the responses to the individual questions. (Hint: In Microsoft Excel, you can look up the neces-sary formulas in the category “Statistical”, you will have to calculate the ranges yourself.)
Format the means using color scales to highlight the items needing attention.
Make sure to professionally format the pages before submitting them to your instructor.
vik aDtatcaabmapseustapltrion: Tracking Software Licenses
10-46.
Recently, you have taken on the position of IS manager at Campus Travel. In your second week at work, you realize that many of the software licenses are about to expire or have already expired. As you know about the legal and ethical implications of unlicensed software, you have decided to set up a software asset manage-ment system that lets you keep track of the software licenses.
You have already set up a database and stored some of the information, but you want to make the system more user friendly.
Using the SWLicenses.mdb database, design a form to input the following informa-tion for new software products:
■ Software title
■ Installation location (office)
■ License number
■ Expiration date
Furthermore, design a report displaying all software licenses and expiration dates (sorted by expiration dates). (Hint: In Microsoft Access, use the form and report wizards to create the forms and reports; you will fmd the wizards under the “Create” tab.)
Team Work Exercise c40/—- Top Cyberthreats
Robert Morris’s worn, a bug the crashed a record 6,000 com-puters (a statistic compiled from an estimate that that were 60,000 computers connected to the Internet at the time and the worm affected 10 percent of them), now seems as antiquated as the 1911 Stutz Bearcat automobile. In 1998, when Morris was a student at Cornell University, he devised a program that he later insisted was intended simply to gauge how many comput-ers were connected to the Internet. Errors in Morris’s program turned it into a self-replicating monster that overloaded com-puters and threatened frightened Internet users. Dubbed simply the Internet Worm, Morris’s program was the precursor for today’s multitude of malevolent codes. According to Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of con-tat management security solutions, attackers are having to continuously change their methods in response to the growing competition among the IT security companies the investigate and protect against targeted attacks. Increased public eta-don to security lapses will also force the attackers to search for new instruments. For example, conventional methods of
attack involving e-mail attachments will gradually become less effective, while browser attacks will gain in popularity. For 2016 and beyond, they expected to see the following: Mobile threats will continue to rise. Maintaining privacy will become increasingly difficult. 0 Attacks on cloud storage facilities will increase. Attacks on software developers will increase. Cyber-mercenaries will be on the rise. ■ Ransomware will continue to be a major threat. In addition to these various trends, an old favorite, the Windows operating system, will continue to be a popular tar-get. Nevertheless, many experts believe some major security improvements within Windows 10 were driving criminals to other targets.
Questions and Exercises 10-47. Search the web for the most up-to-date statistics and events related to IS security. 10-48. As a team, interpret these numbers (or stories). What is strildng/important about these findings?
