HC1041: Commonwealth Bank and the Impact of IT on Business, T1 2019

This report examines the impact of information technology on the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, focusing on a significant data breach and the importance of IT for business survival. It details the bank's IT infrastructure, the role of IT in mitigating economic challenges and improving customer service, and the necessity of data protection measures. The report also discusses the advantages and risks associated with IT implementation, along with strategies for enhancing IT functions within the bank to prevent future breaches and improve overall business performance. It concludes that a robust IT strategy is crucial for the Commonwealth Bank to efficiently manage its operations and protect its data.

Running head: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR BUSINESS
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR BUSINESS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................2
About the organization.................................................................................................................2
Importance of IT within the organization...................................................................................3
IT in business survival..............................................................................................................4
IT for data protection................................................................................................................5
Use of IT in commonwealth bank...........................................................................................6
Advantages of IT in business..................................................................................................6
Risks associated with IT in Commonwealth.........................................................................7
Ways to improve IT functions..................................................................................................7
Conclusion......................................................................................................................................8
Bibliography...................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The main objective of this assignment is to describe the recent breaches
associated with information security within a chosen organization. This report will focus
on describing the impact of IT on the business. The industry that is being considered for
conducting the research is banking and finance. Banking and finance is one of the
important industries for every country and hence it helps seen earning huge amount of
economy towards the country. Thus it becomes essential to identify the recent breaches
that are taking place within the sector. The organization that is being considered for this
assessment is commonwealth bank of Australia. Commonwealth bank of Australia is
one of the multinational bank that performs business across New Zealand, Asia, United
States and United Kingdom. This offers a wide range of financial services to words their
customers that includes business, retail and institutional banking, fund management
and also services related to broking. This is one of the largest banks associated with in
the Australia that focuses on providing best services towards their customers. This
report will focus entirely on describing the recent breach that occurred within the
organization and the importance of proper IT in performing the business activities.
About the organization
Commonwealth bank of Australia is one of the largest multinational banks that
offer several varieties of services to words the customers. The bank was established at
early December 1911. The organization focuses on providing better financial facilities
towards the users. However recently a data breach occurred within the organization that
lady to data loss of 20 million accounts. In the year 2018 the Commonwealth

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organization stated that Around 20,000,000 users account got hacked and the data
associated with those accounts got breached. The accounts contained data related to
the employees and customers. These included the name, address and account
numbers, bank statement for that where is told from 2000 to 2016. In addition to this the
organization also identified that there were two tapes that got destroyed by
subcontractor. The organization failed to gather information related to this data
breaches. After analysing this major data breaches on a multinational organization it is
observed that there is a need to have proper knowledge that will help in managing the
IT infrastructure within the organization. Moreover with proper implementation of IT the
chances of breaches can be mitigated.
Importance of IT within the organization
Information technology plays major role wheat in every organization and every
field. Thus it becomes important to implement proper IT infrastructure that will protect
the organization from serious data breaches incidents. The Commonwealth bank of
Australia identified a recent data breached that caused a huge loss of data related to
their employees. Thus it can be stated that there is a high need to implement proper IT
within the organization. The major benefit that is often read the IT implementation in the
banking industry is that it helps in dealing with the challenges that are likely to impact
the economy. IT plays an important role in banking industry as it is related to economic
and can impact the customer is hugely. With the implementation of IT With in the
banking sector it becomes easy to manage the tasks. These offers better way of
handling the finance department and also offers different ways to enhance the working
of the banks. This provides a better way of managing the funds. The customer will be

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able to access the bank from anywhere at any time. Hence there is a huge need to have
an IT within the commonwealth bank. This will also help in mitigating the problems
faced with the breaches.
IT in business survival
The main reason behind implementing information technology within the
Commonwealth bank is that it helps in addressing the major issues at early stages.
Information technology plays a critical role in managing the survival of the organization.
Thus it becomes a essential to insure proper implementation of IT within the
organisation. The Major support that is provided with the use of information Technology
in an organizations that it helps in increasing the production and saves the time that is
required for managing the resources. With an automated system it is expected that the
customer satisfaction will also increase and it will become easy to manage the records
within the organization. The communication process between the people and
organization also gets improved that helps in providing better services towards the
customers. Moreover an effective IT management strategy offers a better way of storing
the data within the organization and managers the file related to the organisation. The
main reason behind implementing IT with in the banking sector is that it improves the
financial management by implementing accounting software is like QuickBooks, account
age and different other software’s. This helps in processing the amount faster as
compared to the traditional process. The RIO also gets increased with the use of proper
communication and technology. The operational cost gets reduced with the use of
Information technology within the banking sector. After analysing the importance of IT in

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banking sector it can be stated that there is a high need to have proper IT so that the
business performance can be improved effectively.
IT for data protection
Commonwealth Bank seized huge issue due to data breaches. The organization lost
millions of data and thus it becomes a essential to implement proper measures that will
protect the organization from further data breaches. The data needs to be protected
effectively within the organizations so that it Thus not gets hacked. In order to protect
data it is important to implement proper authentication measures within the information
system. Apart from this it becomes a essential to train each and every employee
associated with the organization about the possible threats that are likely to be faced by
the organization. This will ensure that the employees of the organization are aware
enough to protect the confidential data from breaches. Order to protect the data from
breach is it the following steps are needed to be implemented we team and organization
this includes:
 Updating the software within the organization so that it can have proper
protection methods for preventing data loss.
 Encryption must be implemented within the sensitive data so that it can ensure
better safety
 Enforcing proper secretly policy towards the employees so that they can have
better control over the activities performed by them.
 Organization needs to enforce strong credentials and multi-factor authentication
for ensuring that data is being protected from the hackers.

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 Proper training is needed to be conducted within the organizations that it can
ensure that every employee is aware of the security practices that will help in
managing the activities.
Use of IT in commonwealth bank
With the help of IT in banking sector the organization will be able to provide
better support to words the employs. It will reduce the amount of effort needed to
complete an activity and will make the business process easier for the employees. Thus
with the use of an effective IT within the commonwealth bank it is expected that the
organization will be able to achieve better results. On the other hand an effective IT
strategy will attract more customers as it will be able to provide effective benefits along
with a better way of handling the funds. The transaction can be made by the users with
one touch. This will improve the relationship between the customers and organisation.
With better features it is expected that the organization will achieve better customer and
employee base.
Advantages of IT in business
The major benefits that are offered with IT in the organization of commonwealth
bank is that it offers better way of managing the activities. The key advantages offered
are described below:
 Offers better operational performances
 Improves the business initiatives
 Offers supply chain management activities by automating the tracking of
inventory functions

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 Implementing proper business intelligence for identifying the customers and other
major stakeholders
 Offers better implementation of sales force automation that tacks the steps
associated with sales process automatically
Risks associated with IT in Commonwealth
The major risks associated with the implementation of IT in Commonwealth bank
of Australia are as follows:
 Operational risks
 Market risks
 Technical risks
 Credit risks
 Risks related to fraud
 Moral hazard towards the organisation
 Systematic risks
Ways to improve IT functions
IT functions are essential for every organization thus it becomes important to
implement proper IT within the organization of commonwealth bank so that it can
overcome the breaches issues that are faced by the organisation. The ways in which IT
can be improved are by implementing proper measures for protecting the organisation.
Providing better security policies towards the people and ensuring better support
towards them. The information technology needs to have proper control measures that
will protect the system from further threats. By providing proper training towards the

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employees the chances of data breaches can be reduced. This will aware the
employees about the ways system can be protected within the organisation. Important
for the organization to implement strong passwords so that no one can access the
system. In addition to this it becomes essential to implement authentication rules that
will protect the system from further changes. Thus with an effective IT management
process it will become easy to organise the activities taking place within the
Commonwealth banks.
Conclusion
Thus from the report it can be concluded that with the help of an effective IT
strategy within the organization it becomes easy to manage it the performance of
Commonwealth bank. As the organization has faced a serious breach in last year it
becomes important to realize appropriate IT measure that will protect the system from
further beaches. The report has described the need of IT in the chosen organization and
the importance of IT in business survival. Along with this with the use of IT Within the
Commonwealth bank is also described in the report for understanding the performance
of the bank in detail. The report has also provided the major benefits that are likely to
come along with the implementation of an affective IT strategy. Thus it can be stated
that there is a huge need to implement proper IT technology meeting in the
organizations so that it can perform banking activities efficiently. This will also better
support towards the development process of the organization.

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