IT Manager Interviews for Telstra and Vodafone: A Case Analysis on Cybersecurity and Information Technology Control

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS - INFORMATION SYSTEMS DISCIPLINE
BCO6653  Management of Information Technology
Semester 2, 2014
ASSIGNMENT #2
Case Analysis for
place business names here
A study of issues in:
List the topic areas here such as (order matching ‘submitted by’ list):
IT Human Resource Management
Business Continuity Management
Submitted by:
Place your student numbers and names here; these match the topic order above
Group # (place your group number here)
Place date submitted here

IT Manager Interviews for Telstra and Vodafone
List your names here followed by a comma and your email address:
Jane Smith, [e-mail]
Abstract
In the following paper, an IT manager interview report and a literature analysis has been provided.
The paper begins with a brief introduction about the topic on cybersecurity and the information
technology control. The contents of the paper are revised gain in this section and the name of the two
organizations are mentioned which are going to be the basis if the interview report. The organizational
background of the two institutions which has an IT department of at least five people have been
mentioned in the subsequent sections. Next the paper discusses the IS planning stages. A literature
analysis has been mentioned to properly address this topic. The responses of the organizations are
noted down in the next sections. The paper conducts a comparative analysis on the two organizations
and assesses them accordingly. The results of the interviews are analyzed and evaluated. The literature
discussion of both organizations are compared and contrasted with each and every points to compare
both businesses relevant to the mentioned topic. Each topic is assessed according to the topic p the
paper. Next, the issues studied are listed in a literature analysis of the respective organizations. Next, a
conclusion section has been added that discusses the main findings of the paper.
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Introduction
The protection of the network of connected systems such as data, software and hardware from cyber-
attacks is known as cyber security. Normally from an organizational point of view, security is listed as
both physical security and cyber security. To prevent the organizations from unauthorized logins and
monitoring the information technology efficiently, organizations normally use cyber security to
maintain their computerized systems and data centers (Luiijf and te Paske 2015). This is necessary for
organizations as maintaining the availability, integrity and confidentiality of the information is
necessary and is a part of the cyber security. Every organization has an IT department. Who have to
maintain the information system effectively. The security can range from end user education,
operational security, disaster recovery to network security, information security and application
security (Von Solms and Van Niekerk 2013). The IT team of every organization has to come up with
innovative solutions every once a while as the threats are constantly evolving in nature. The
conventional approach to the risks is to focus on the components which are crucial for the system
(Laudon and Laudon 2013). The systems which are not protected due to low risk threats or the
components of the Information system which are left undefended are addresses with the help of proper
cyber security measures. Organisation such as Telstra and Vodafone Australia has taken a more
adaptive and proactive approach to address cyber security and proper control over its information
systems. The mentioned organizations face cyber security issues on a daily basis. It is a challenging
task for the IT departments of the respective organizations to keep up with the threat intelligence,
security trends and new technologies. Ransomwares are the latest threat in this field and i is known for
locking the computers of a particular organization demanding money to unlock and decrypt them
(Caldwell 2013). Telstra recently faced a threat from malware last month. These types of cyber threats
come in the form f spywares, Trojan horses, computer viruses and worms. A recent new technology
has emerged which the IT departments of the respective organizations has to check. It is known as
social engineering and uses the interaction of human beings to break into secure systems for getting
protected sensitive information. Vodafone Australia recently deployed additional security measures to
stop frauds such as phishing. These types of threat are getting common day by day and uses fraudulent
emails to extract sensitive data like login information and credit card credentials (Pearlson, Saunders
and Galletta 2016). Most of the times these types of emails take the form of emails from reputable
sources so they are very hard to detect beforehand. The IT teams of the respective organizations has to
enhance their cyber security procedures to properly detect the threats before they cause damage to the
information systems of the company.
The IT department is responsible for coordinating and providing the computer based information
delivery services in that particular organization. They are responsible for maintaining and developing
organizational information system. They have to facilitate the adoption and acquisition of hardware
and software. Instead of providing all the services themselves, they are responsible for coordinating all
the services in the organization effectively. Based on the nature of business of Telstra and Vodafone
Australia, these organizations have to organize their forms a per the functions of the information
system. In Telstra, the Information system are centralized and uses a contemporary structure of the IS
unit.
In the following assignment, an email interview with the IT departments of the two mentioned
organization are provided. The interviews have been conducted with the IT managers of the respective
organizations. The policies have been framed with respect to the topic of the assignment. The IT
departments have been chosen as per their web presence and number of employees. The email contacts
have been extracted and the industries have been chosen in the same domain so that the comparisons
can be facilitated. The functions of the organizations have been compared in the comparative analysis
section of the report. A literature analysis of the IS planning has been assessed and evaluated in the
report. The issues that are studied and the results of the interview analysis has been mentioned in the
subsequent sections of the report. In the following report, the chosen organizations are taken as Telstra
and Vodafone Australia in the telecommunication domain.
Organisation background
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Telstra Australia
Telstra Corporation Limited, or commonly termed as Telstra, is a leading telecommunication
organization in Australia. Telstra had first originated in collaboration with Australia Post as the Post
Master General’s Department. It used to control the telecommunication services of entire Australia
through the Post Master General’s Department. With several disintegrations later, it finally started to
work as an individual organization after the split in 1992. It was privatized in three different stages
informally referred to as T1, T2 and T3. Since, the entire organization deals with the
telecommunication services of the entire Australia, it deals with one of the major discrete and personal
data of its customers. In the year 2011, Telstra had announced that the organization would move
forward in implementing a new strategy with the launch of Telstra Digital, led by Gerd Schenkel of
National Australia Bank. The initial purpose of this launch was for improving the use of digital
channels for customer services. However, changes in a telecommunications based organization in
Australia should maintain ethical conduct as per Australian law suggests. Therefore, it is essential that
Telstra possesses state of the art cyber security measures in order to protect the essential and discrete
data of their customers from being hacked or misused by malicious hackers. In Australia itself, the
entire organization of Telstra had implemented divisions in the organizational structure, essentially
dedicated to the cyber security team. The team divisions secure propose a planned structure through
which the security team is implemented. The security system is then prioritized in percentages,
making it reliable to address each of these divisions according to their priorities. Out of the entire
workforce in the cyber security team, 38 percent priority is dedicated to audit the security system. 36
percent of the prioritized task remains dedicated to risk assessments of the entire system.
Governance, Risk and Compliance Tests comprise the next portions in the priority list followed by
Cyber Security Awareness Programs. The entire workforce is made aware of the Procedures to protect
IP. The employees of the organization are essentially dedicated according to the work divisions to their
respective task following quality management, monitoring and control of the systems during cyber
security enforcements. In addition to this, risk management and incident management is given sheer
priority, helping to handle any malicious incident or occurrence of any risk that may lead to a major
problem. Since, the company had opted in digitizing itself with the implementation of computer apps
and mobile friendly software applications, the implementation and utilization of cyber security
methodologies in the organization had become the most important aspect. Security awareness before
implementation of security management is most essential for this organization as Telstra’s digitization
would enable the customers to be connected to the organization at any given time. Thus, there is a
high chance that discrete user data could be compromised. Ethical implications would then follow if
any kind of user data breach occurs. The organization, in order to protect the generated business data
and customers’ discrete data, follows all these methodologies without failure.
The Head office is located in Melbourne Australia. It is one of the tallest buildings in Australia and is
located in 242 Exhibition street. The homepage URL of the organisation is
https://www.telstra.com.au/. The person who is interviewed for this particular assignment is Stephen
Eloph, the Technology and innovation executive of the company (Telstra - mobile phones, prepaid
phones, broadband, internet, home phones, business phones 2018). He is currently located in Sydney
and is responsible for maintaining the cyber security issues of the company.
The email address for contacting him is [e-mail].
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