Impact of IT Security on Small Businesses

This assignment delves into the crucial role of information technology (IT) security within the context of small businesses. It examines the potential impact of inadequate security measures on these enterprises, highlighting vulnerabilities and risks. The assignment also explores best practices for implementing effective IT security solutions tailored to the specific needs and constraints of small businesses. Furthermore, it investigates the challenges that small businesses face in adopting robust cybersecurity strategies and discusses potential mitigation techniques.

Running head: STRATEGIC INFORMATION SECURITY
STRATEGIC INFORMATION SECURITY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Executive summary
The main objective of the report is to discuss abou the risks and security issues present in an
organization. Atlassian is one of the leading organizations in Information technology and the
structure of the organization can be modified in order to maintain the structural orientation
and to increase security. Different methods are discussed which can be utilized in order to
maintain the security of the organization.

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Table of Contents
Introduction..............................................................................................................................................3
The current organizational structure........................................................................................................3
Operational problems due to the present structure of the organisation...................................................5
Current market size of the Atlassian........................................................................................................6
Competitors of Atlassian.........................................................................................................................6
Organizational Risks factors and uncertainties........................................................................................7
Security issues in the organization due to Information technology.........................................................9
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................12
References..............................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
Information technology and security are two terms which are related very closely and these
subjects are most important from the pont of view of different organization. With the growth
of communication and internet, information can be utilized for several needs of people
through many projects. The security of public information is given the highest priority by the
organizations (Arvidsson, Holmström and Lyytinen 2014). Companies are using a lot of new
methods to overcome the risks and threats related to the security of the information.
For the understanding of strategic security management Atlassian is chosen as the
organization for analysis in this report. Atlassian is an Australian company which is one of
the biggest companies in the IT market (Boonstra 2013). Atlassian is a software company that
develops different kinds of software and it executes many projects that help to manage
several contents. Atlassian deals with various kinds of technology regarding information
handling.
In this report the organizational structure of Atlassian is discussed in order to
understand the functioning of the organization and to understand about the security issues of
the organizations. Several disadvantages due to the present organizational structure and the
market position of this organization are also given with details. Recommendations and
alternatives are discussed in order to find the way of overcoming security issues and
organizational deficiencies regarding the management and information technology.
The current organizational structure
Atlassian is one of the largest Australian organization dealing with Information technology
and has the following organizational structure

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Management
Scott Farquhar Co-founder and CEO
Mike Cannon-Brookes Co-founder and CEO
Jay Simons President
Murray Demo Chief Financial Officer
Tom Kennedy Chief Legal Officer
Sri Viswanath Chief Technology Officer
Helen Russell Chief People Officer
Board of Directors
Shona Brown Board Member
Michael Cannon-Brookes Board Member
Scott Farquhar Chairman of the Board
Heather M. Fernandez Board Member
Jay Parikh Board Member
Enrique Salem Board Member
Steven Sordello Board Member
Richard P. Wong Board Member
Atlassian follows many international and organizational rules and regulations in order
to strengthen the security of the system (Boulianne 2014). The security of public data is the
most important thing to be maintained and is given highest priority. The international control
standards are carefully followed by the Atlassian organization and those are applicable to
evaluate the feature regarding operational environments and the product development of the
organization (Galliers and Leidner 2014). To successfully implement the data in the cloud
platform and to analyze those data Atlassian follows lots of security models including various
network and information security models (Godfrey 2014). . To overcome these problems

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Atlassian has some risk management regulations also (Boonstra 2013). Due to the use of the
cloud and big data platform there are many issues which are discussed.
Operational problems due to the present structure of the organisation
There are many operational problems in maintaining the security due to the structure of the
organization (Gögüs and Özer 2014). There are many factors related to the organisation
which can be better in order to overcome the issues of the organisation. In this present
organisational structure there should not be a communication gap among the board members.
The board members are always working for the betterment of the organisational functionality.
The main system of the organisation can be more advanced by creating new posts in the
organization (Kelly 2016). The organisational structure of the system is based upon the
leaders who are working for the betterment of the organisation. The leaders are always trying
to make the system more fluent in order to get the faster response. For this reason the
structure of the system should be designed in such a way so that it can be more helpful for the
organisational point of view (Laudon and Laudon 2016). The employees of the organisation
should be motivated by the organisational structure of the company. The posts of the
organisation should be in such a way so that it can be settled on the basis of both experience
and ability (Machado 2016). The organisational structure of the company should be in such a
way so that other employees are also motivated to do their job in order to get higher rank in
the organisation. In order to do so there should be new posts created for the employees. The
organisational structure of the company is more important from the point of view of doing the
task in proper order (Kelly 2017). The organisational goal is the main thing which should be
given highest priority by each working member of the organisation. The organisational
principle should be followed by each of the individuals of the organisation. The main
function of the management board is to make the bridge between the leaders and the

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employees of the organization (Pearlson Saunders and Galletta 2016). There are many
situational problems in an organisation those should also be overcome by the members of the
organisation in order to maintain the organizational target (Rahman et al. 2015). The lower
level employees should also be given importance in order to provide them more
independence to share their views and ideas for any project.
Current market size of the Atlassian
Atlassian is one of the biggest organizations in the world in the information technology
market. There are more than 75000 users and customers in the world who are using the
products of it. Atlassian sells its product in more than 170 markets. The main products of
Atlassian are the software, servers and several solutions regarding the software and other
solutions related to information technology. The information technology is one of the biggest
markets in today’s world. With the advancement of internet and communication, information
technology has become one of the biggest markets in the world (Sampaio and Bernardino
2016). The main advantage of the organization is that there is a huge demand for the IT
solutions of the company. The main of making the system more advanced in order to bring
proper security in the information system (Schiff and Szendi 2014). The products of the
organization are JIRA software, JIRA service desk, JIRA Core, Status Page, Confluence,
Trello, Hipchat, Bitbucket, SourceTree, Bamboo, FishEye, Crucible and many more. There
are also many IT related solutions which are provided by this organization. Atlassian is
considered to be the leader in this market. The main product of Atlassian is the ALM tools. In
making this software Atlassian is the Global leader in the market.
Competitors of Atlassian
There are many competitors of Atlassian in the market of software products and information
technology solutions. Software companies like Microsoft, IBM, HP are the biggest

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competitors of Atlassian as those are the organizations selling their products all over the
world (Wali, Sadq and Rasheed 2016). There is a huge market for the organizations in selling
the software products. The other competitors of the organization are Rally software,
CollabNet, version One, PTC-MKS, Serena Software are also important competitors in the
market of information technology. The other comparative organization are Polarion Software,
TroughtWorks, Parasoft, Micro Focus, TechExel, Inflectra & Rocket Software, Throught
Works, Parasoft, Micro Focus, tech Exel, Inflectra & Rocket software. The market in
information technology and in the software is huge in quantity and from the point of view of
the market it is continuously evolving.
Organizational Risks factors and uncertainties
From the point of view of the organizations there are many reasons in the market. There are
many possible risks in the organization that can be possible for the organizational
advancement. The main reasons are the security issues related to the organizational vision
and the making of the system more precise. There are many risk factors which can be divided
in two parts. One is the internal risk factor and the other is the external risk factor (Sawik
2013). Internal risk factors consist of many risks like organizational risk and natural risk
factors. In case of organizational risk factors there are many fields of risks like Governance,
strategic directions, professional risks, physical risks, legal risks, financial risks, risks related
to property and environmental risks. In case of governance the governing body sometimes
fails to meet the responsibilities given to them. They have the responsibilities like training
and orientation and direction insurance (Hof 2015). There are many risks from the strategic
directions also. The organization may change the way which may lead to the unstable
environment. The strategic planning and the types of reducing the risks through changed
work practice can lead to a bigger market risk which can be implemented to increase the risks

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regarding the work practice. There may be many professional risks where the staff may not
be professionally complemented. The risk can be diluted by reduced risk. The clients may
receive an inappropriate service which may cause inappropriate services that may lead to
harm for the organization. Sometimes the staff may not understand what they need to do in a
particular set of circumstances (Sandberg, Amin, and Johansson 2015). The threads can be
identified as the sequential form of some responses to a message. The form of the thread can
of different types like deliberate thread or accidental threads. The threads are one of the most
important things that can be used in the computing system for several implications. The
single threading refers to the sequential processing of the instruction at a time and multi
threading refers to the threading done in the operating system having multitasking. The
threading can be off different types on the basis of the occurrence of the threads. The
Accidental thread can also be present in the system by any time or any process
occurrence.The physical risks can be of many types which are also very important from the
organizational point of view. Physical risks can contain the failure of the office equipments
and network devices of the organization. The other things related to the organization are
legal, financial and risks regarding the property and environmental risks. Fire in the
organization can be taken place in case of the environmental breakdown (Hof 2015). The
other environmental risks are like damage of the building and devices due to the earthquake,
storm or any other natural calamities. The external risks can be a huge issue from the
organizational point of view. Information theft is a big part of that. Hackers can steal the
information from the computer and network which may lead to the damage of public’s data
confidentiality. There are many differences between risks and uncertainty. In case of risk the
possibility of a future outcome can be predicted but in case of uncertainty the possibility of a
future outcome cannot be predicted. From this concept it is quite easy to understand that the
risk can be managed but the uncertainty cannot be managed and it is uncontrollable. The risks

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can be defined and measured in terms of quantity by different kinds of analyzing techniques.
Uncertainty cannot be measured and quantified. The background of risk is known to us and
thus it can be identified previously. The background of the uncertainty is never known to us
and it cannot be identified previously.
Security issues in the organization due to Information technology
There are many security issues in an organization that can be harmful from both
organizational as well as public point of view. In today’s world the organizations are using
cloud and big data analysis method for the decision-n taking and other information
technology utilities. There are many risks of using the cloud computing and the big data
model. The information is shared in the cloud computer model and for this reason the cloud
computer model can be utilized in such a way that the theft of data is lowest (Simić-Draws et
al. 2015). Organizations sometimes launch many projects without doing the encryption. In
case of not doing the encryption the organizations can be in a big danger. The hackers can
easily get the information stream form the computers. There is always a possibility of data
theft in case of not doing the encryption in the computing system. The other things related to
the organizational security can cause due to the absence of proper framework of the security
model. The organization should follow a proper framework that can be used to maintain the
security of the organization (Disterer 2013). The organizations sometimes have the security
issues due to the main server and the connectivity of the hardware and the software. The
other important security issues are given below.
Hacking is the most vulnerable security issue in case of an organization that can be
used to steal data and information from server, computers and networking system.
There are many threats which can be really harmful for the organization. threats can be of
different types like accidental threat and deliberate threat. Accidental threat can be caused

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due to the failure of the system as well as network and devices. Accidental threats can be
present also due to some natural calamities (Kolfal, Patterson and Yeo 2013). There are many
deliberate threats which can be really harmful for the organizations. Deliberate threat can
contain data theft, data lose and many more.
There may a problem due to using the computing system or network having copyright
of several other organizations.
Another type of security issue can be due to the transfer of abusive e-mails and
posting various kind of posting offensive web pages.
Another security issue can be present due to the transfer of offensive images which
are not appropriate for the organizational point of view.
The other unauthorized applications and computing resources may lead to the
organizational security issue.
Any kind of unauthorized access of several Computing resources can be harmful for
the organizational security also.
Methods utilizing against the security issues
There are many methods that can be used against the security issues from the
organizational point of view. With the advancement of technology and computing system
many methods are invented that can be utilized against the security issues (Sunyaev and
Schneider 2013). In recent days organizations are functioning on the basis of using the data of
individuals for several projects. In case of doing the organizational functioning these
information are most important should be given highest priority from the security point of
view. Public information should be kept confidential for the reliability of individuals. The
main theme of the organization is that the security and confidentiality of data should be

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maintained at any cost. In order to do so the organizations are using many methods. These
methods are discussed below.
Organizations should use the encryption method in order to make information highly
secured. The data and the information used in the organization should be kept confidential to
maintain the security of public information. In order to do so the encryption is done.
Encryption is the method that basically changes the style of the information in terms of
coding and other things. It may be sometimes useful to make the system more inaccessible
for the hackers to enter the system for stealing the information. There are many security
issues that can be used in order to damage the system security for the organization.
Better risk assessment can be done in order to overcome the organizational risks and
assess many functions regarding security issues of the organization. This kind of assessment
is used to find out the holes in online transaction methods, and the level of risk which can
take place in the transaction of information. This helps to find out many processes which are
also important for the organizational strategy making in case of mitigating the security issues.
Sometimes the data can be very sensitive and the confidentiality of the information should be
maintained in order to make the customer satisfaction. The main flow of damages like
financial loss, reputational risk and the corporate risks can be overcome by using the risk
assessment techniques.
Another important thing is to adopt strong authentication standards. In today’s information
technology market, threats are the strongest issues related to the security of the organization.
In case many online transactions the organization can use the dual security methods by using
the username-password techniques (Hof 2015). The username and password of the system
should be designed in such a way that can be strong for the security system of the computing
system. The password should contain different characters like alphabets, numerical and

12STRATEGIC INFORMATION SECURITY
special characters and the number of characters should also be high for example minimum
16, for better security of the system.
The most important security feature can be the awareness and education among the
customers. The customers are most important for the organization. The organizational aspects
can be set for the utility of their products among the customers (Kolfal, Patterson and Yeo
2013). Regarding use of different software and other computer applications the customers can
be acknowledge with the methods that should be followed in order to making the security
safe for them. There should be ongoing education system that can be utilized in order to
maintain the security among the people.
Different network layers are designed in order to maintain the security of the network system
and the security of the server can be more advanced by making the system with more
advanced designing approach of the network layers (Disterer 2013). There are many network
layers like IPV4, IPV6 and other. These network systems can be used to maintain the data
security by not giving the permission to other unauthorized users.
Conclusion
From the above discussion it is concluded that data security issues can be overcome
by using the applications of various methods. Encryption can be used to overcome data theft.
Other security methods contain awareness among the public and the security can be upgraded
by the advancement of network layers. Atlassian is one of the leading organizations in the
information technology market. The organizational structure of the company is discussed in
details. There may be many changes that can be carried out in order to maintain better
environment security in the organizational functioning. The main importance of the data
security is the advancement of the organizational structure as well as to improve the methods
which are utilized against security issues.

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