Allowing Employees to Bring Your Own Devices at Work (BYOD Project) at Aztek

RUNNING HEAD: IT RISK ASSESSMENT REPORT 1
Allowing Employees to “Bring Your Own Devices” at Work (BYOD project) Report.
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IT RISK ASSESSMENT REPORT 2
Executive Summary
This Study report reviews the practice of allowing employees at Aztek to bring their own
devices in the work environment to facilitate their assigned duties. With advancements in the
sector of technology, several mobile devices have come to place. These devices include phones,
tablets, and laptops. More in particular with the introduction of the Android platform, most
people can access the internet, install several applications which can be of great significance in
their career life (Applegate, 2016). But is allowing people to bring their own devices to the work
environment at Aztek ethical? As technologies improve, there are several Information
Technology risks which have emerged. This report provides significant information regarding
the security threats and vulnerabilities which are brought about by the practice of letting workers
use their mobile devices in the institution. Through the use of literature review materials, the
report brings out the merits, challenges, risks as well as organizational policies.
Aztek is a company located in Australia, and it operates under the Australian Financial
Service Sector. The finance sector of any business in the world is the power of the economy.
Financial statements should remain private unless published for official purposes. What will
happen if the financial statements are revealed out? Should people be allowed to carry their
mobile devices, laptops or tablets to work to aid them to accomplish tasks? Yes. They will
facilitate work output. But on the other side, the secrets of the company are likely to be out. An
employee might intentionally or unintentionally provide vital information that is not supposed to
leak to outsiders. There is nothing which is as bad as fighting an enemy who knows most of your
secrets. During the transfer of information between personal devices and the company’s
equipment, viruses get introduced into the systems if the files are infected. These viruses might
lead to the breakdown of the firm’s operation and loss of vital information. For instance, losing
information of your clients will be a great loss and sometimes, if not in a position to retrieve,
Aztek might end up losing these people completely. The sales will go down, hence poor
performance and reputation.

IT RISK ASSESSMENT REPORT 3
Table of Contents
Executive Summary................................................................................................... 2
Introduction................................................................................................................ 4
Financial Services Sector Review............................................................................... 5
Security Posture Review............................................................................................. 6
Transferring the risk................................................................................................ 6
Accepting the risk.................................................................................................... 6
Avoid the risk.......................................................................................................... 6
Threats, Vulnerability and consequences assessment.................................................................7
Malicious apps............................................................................................................. 7
Rooting/jailbreaking...................................................................................................... 7
Untrustworthy employees............................................................................................... 7
Buggy applications........................................................................................................ 8
Lost devices................................................................................................................ 8
Software bugs.............................................................................................................. 8
Processing of data is done externally...............................................................................9
Data storage is outside the device...................................................................................9
Data Security.................................................................................................................. 9
Conclusion................................................................................................................... 10
References................................................................................................................... 12

IT RISK ASSESSMENT REPORT 4
Introduction
Allowing employees to bring their portable devices to the work environment at Aztek is
useful. However. The practice has the ability to increase threats to the information systems of the
organization. Such threats include viruses and illegal access to the organization’s information by
competitors, frauds, and members of the team who intend to harm the company. Information is
the most important thing in the organization. It is what keeps the business running. There is an
increased need to prevent and protect this information with the highest security degree possible.
Thus, allowing new devices into the company might trigger information leakage when
employees leave the firm. What happens if the devices are stolen or get lost on their way home?
Information gets into the hands of harmful people. However, this should not prevent the
company from venturing into the project.
When starting any kind of business, a good entrepreneur is always ready to face risks.
There are no businesses which operate without risks. What Aztek should put into consideration is
how to choose among the potential hazards likely to occur. There are several strategies to solve
risks in organizations. Some include transferring the risks to the third party, which in this case
include investors, insurance bodies among other financial institutions which can give a helping
hand in times of need or the occurrence of the estimated risks. The greatest advantage of the
mobile devices to the users is that they are familiar with every kind of operation within them.
Making mistakes or omissions using the device you use every day is rare. This paper will also
cover the possible solutions to the risks involved when workers are allowed to bring their devices
to work. The possible solutions include teaching employees to abide by the company’s
organizational culture and ethics; not sharing information with others.
It is unethical to give out information regarding your company to the outsiders.
Organizational culture does not permit that. An employee with his senses working well will not
violet the company’s policies easily. With financial institutions, a single employee’s mistake will
cost the entire financial status of the company. When working as a team, a member’s mistake is a
failure to the entire team. It is should be therefore the responsibility of the company to ensure
that everyone with the BYOD device in the firm takes responsibility.
In the past few years, there has been rapid growth in the computer technologies.
Cybercrimes have also increased as people learn new ways to get access to information that does
not belong to them. This paper has covered the various topics of information security in relation
to the case of giving employees chances to bring their devices to work. It also analyzes the
emerging trends in the IT security field. Some of the widely covered areas in this writing include
threats, management of risk, password cracking, access control management system as well as
Firewalls.
Several recommendations are also covered in this report. The recommendations include
limiting the use of personal devices to perform tasks in offices. If the company will limit the
information to be accessed by the employees using personal devices, then the security problem is
controlled. Another recommendation provided is the education of the Aztek employees about the
appropriate security measures to ensure that their devices are secure. This will help them to keep
information safe even if their devices get lost or stolen on the way. For instance, teaching them
how to make use of strong passwords which no person can easily access.