IT Risk Management: Aztek Financial Company Case Study Report

This report focuses on IT risk management within the context of the Aztek Financial Company, a financial services provider. It begins with an executive summary outlining the report's objectives, which include maintaining information and data security and integrating cloud solutions. The report analyzes the current financial services landscape in Australia, highlighting the significance of financial services and the challenges faced by companies like Aztek. It covers risk assessment, IT risk principles, and security frameworks, and addresses the impacts of cloud computing and third-party solutions. The report discusses the risks and controls, including cyber threats, and the need for effective IT risk management. The report concludes with recommendations for enhancing IT security and mitigating risks within the Aztek Financial Company, aiming to improve their business operations and customer service while addressing the challenges of a growing digital landscape.

Running head: IT RISK MANAGEMENT
IT Risk management
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive summary
The following report discusses about the risk management procedures for IT solutions to be
applied in business organizations. The chosen company is the Aztek Financial Company. The
main aim for the company is to maintain the information security and the data security.
Furthermore, the cloud solutions are also to be integrated in the current operations of the
company. The report includes the current analysis of the services in the financial aspects. In
addition, the challenges pertaining to the financial sectors are also included in the report.
Moreover, the IT risk principles and the IT security framework is also depicted it the analysis
made on the report. Lastly, the report concludes by recommending the possible measure to be
applied in their solutions.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Discussion:.......................................................................................................................................3
Australian financial services:.......................................................................................................4
Impacts on the project:.................................................................................................................7
Risks assessment:.........................................................................................................................9
Principles of information technologies in risks management:...................................................11
Recommendations:........................................................................................................................14
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................15
References:....................................................................................................................................16

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Introduction:
The recent trends in the modern world include the adoption of the information security
trends to be applied in the business operations of organizations or companies. However, the
presence of various risks and vulnerabilities in the information technologies are to be addressed
for enhancing the safety of their applications. The following report discusses about the case
study regarding the Aztek Company whose business corresponds to the financial service sectors.
The assessment for the information technology risk management is included in the report.
Furthermore, the challenges faced in the acceptance for such technologies are also covered in the
report. Moreover, the IT risk principles and the IT security framework is also depicted it the
analysis made on the report. Lastly, the report concludes by recommending the possible measure
to be applied in their solutions.
Discussion:
Financial services are termed as a major part of the financial systems of the area
concerned. They are mainly used to provide financial helps by using various credit instruments,
services and products. The major applications of the financial services include cheque, debt
clearance services, bills or credit instruments. The financial products extend from mutual funds
investments to credit or debit cards. The major significance of the financial services includes the
strengthening of country’s economy. This is mainly signified by the presence of more growth
and prosperity on all the sectors of the company’s economy. In addition, the economic growth of
a country is reflected by the increase in the standards of living among the population of that
country.

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Australian financial services:
For the last two decades, the emergence of the financial services is evident by checking
the global economy. The constant rate of the increasing financial economy has made the
companies or business organizations to apply the solutions needed for referencing them and to
apply them in their operations as well. The economy of Australia has seen an increase of 3.5%
due to the financial strengthening of their services (Rampini & Viswanathan, 2016). The
administrations for the Australian financial services have made various implementations on the
use of certain strategies for the effective business solutions and market economy. However, the
presence of various risks in the financial economy is leveraging the opportunities to reference the
weak points in the services. This is the main cause for the Aztek Company to face multiple issues
pertaining to the information security. Moreover, the presence of illegal uses of financial services
is also another cause for concerns by the company. The center of the company is located in
Australia which allows them to enjoy the benefits of the growing economy. This is helping them
to increase their customer acquisition rate in the market. However, the additional services like
implementation of online banking systems are another cause for concerns as the presence of
cyber attacks and malwares are always evident. This is also the reason for losing of data from
their data centers. This gives a pre-requisite to the Aztek Company to implement their security
enhancements protocols for addressing such risks and threats.
Risks and controls:
There are various risks in the financial sectors that are due to the presence of both
external and internal risks to the sector. Technology in the modern world is the main concept
utilized for innovation. This can also be used to get unethical access to the system leading to
breaches and grave impacts. The cyber threats occurring as data loss, user account

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compromising, file destroying or degrading are the main attacks included in the cyber security
aspects. However, these are not the only risks faced by the financial institutions. The
misalignment between businesses and information technology strategies and management
decisions are also faced by these financial sectors as well (McNeil, Frey & Embrechts, 2015).
The main reason for such actions is the gap in technologies which causes hindrance to the normal
operations. This effectively reduces the speed of serving the clients of the concerned financial
organizations. Moreover, the increases of competition on the market like technological startups
are making the existing businesses opt for more technologically driven approach to adopt the
swiftness in their operations.
Risk assessment:
The risk assessment of information technology has made the possible integration of risk
management techniques that helps in addressing the risks requirements and their mitigation. The
ERM scheme is another method that has been applied by financial sectors that has helped them
to enhance their process of decision making (Glendon, Clarke & McKenna, 2016). The main
objective of the information technology risk management is the removal of loopholes in the
system that helps in the mitigation of the various threats and vulnerabilities that are referenced in
the above section.
Monetary Acts:
The administrative authorities responsible for the monetary transactions in the market are
not very efficient when it comes to the market risks. This is the main requirements for the
presence of a regulatory committee in the market to analyze the market and the products
included in it. In addition, the financial products which are also included in the market should
also be subjected to regulatory committees and administrations. The traditional and the old

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methods of such administration lack the technological advancements needed for the regulatory
preservations. This is being difficult for the clients to assess the validity of the products and the
evaluation of them is very difficult (Chance & Brooks, 2015). The Wallis report is used to serve
as the connection among the risk allotment qualifications and the arrangements of the Trade
Practices Act 1974 (DeAngelo & Stulz, 2015).
Cloud computing:
Cloud technology is the incorporation of virtual architecture in the system that helps in
the efficient betterment of the services. The resources are quickly accessed and modified
however required. This allows the users of the cloud to access the computational abilities of the
infrastructure and get the required capabilities whenever needed. This helps to increase the
agility and deployment of these services. The pricing of the solutions is another feature that helps
the businesses to apply for these services (Hopkin, 2017). The businesses are charged according
to their usages which help them to keep track of their reports. The services provided by the cloud
solutions include the presence of adequate resources, bandwidth and sustainable performance.
The sole requirement of accessing the systems is the presence of an internet access. This allows
remote availability of the cloud resources. In addition, disaster recovery is also possible by
applying for backup. The operations of the system pertaining to a particular date can be saved in
the cloud for later use. In case of disasters in the system, the backed-up system can be
downloaded from the cloud and will be implemented very fast. The resources are quickly
accessed and modified however required. This allows the users of the cloud to access the
computational abilities of the infrastructure and get the required capabilities whenever needed.
This helps to increase the agility and deployment of these services.
Stakeholders:

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The stakeholders in Australian financial sectors are said to expect higher returns. This in
turn is followed by investing in risky businesses to get their desired profits. The Financial Sector
Advisory Council has revealed that superannuation in the financial aspects has led to different
outcomes on the premiums of the populations (Cohen, Krishnamoorthy & Wright, 2017). The
most typical stakeholders included in any financial sectors are the government, customers and
the shareholders. This is the reason for the difference in the analytical ability of the market and
the associated dangers of it. This presents the need to diversify the budget of the project.
Impacts on the project:
The project to be made in the Aztek Company is the introduction of cloud computing
architecture to reference the solutions in the information technology aspects. Cloud technology is
the incorporation of virtual architecture in the system that helps in the efficient betterment of the
services. The resources are quickly accessed and modified however required. The main use of
the cloud computing is for the maintenance of a virtual database to tend to the need of the
customers and the employees. This allows the users of the cloud to access the computational
abilities of the infrastructure and get the required capabilities whenever needed. This helps to
increase the agility and deployment of these services. The services provided by the cloud
solutions include the presence of adequate resources, bandwidth and sustainable performance.
The sole requirement of accessing the systems is the presence of an internet access. This allows
remote availability of the cloud resources.
However, the presence of internet access for the access to the system has made the
intrusions of several breaches to the system including malwares and viruses. The cyber threats
occurring as data loss, user account compromising, file destroying or degrading are the main
attacks included in the cyber security aspects. This is the main cause for data loss from the data

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centers. This is the main reason for the company to lose their brand value as well as business in
the market.
Australian frameworks:
The administrative authorities of the financial sectors in Australia are responsible for
referencing to the needs of the customers. This is the sole commitments made by the Australian
Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). The aim for this regulatory authorities is to
make honesty and assurance in the products present in the financial market so as to reach their
intended customer satisfaction level (Olson & Wu, 2017).
Third party cloud solutions:
The cloud solutions are the incorporation of virtual architecture in the system that helps
in the efficient betterment of the services. The resources are quickly accessed and modified
however required. The main use of the cloud computing is for the maintenance of a virtual
database to tend to the need of the customers and the employees. This allows the users of the
cloud to access the computational abilities of the infrastructure and get the required capabilities
whenever needed. This helps to increase the agility and deployment of these services.
However, attacks are always made by insiders who have been given access to the system
and the organizations need to know them. The transparency is not present with them as the
resources and their access are granted by the vendors. This is the main reason for the financial
sectors to opt for in-house applications of the cloud solutions. This will enable them to get the
solutions of in-house security. In addition, the third-party vendors usually have the right to
access the data. This reduces the transparency of the organizations to get their access whenever
required. This also cannot be helped in case the client wants to expand their architecture. In
addition, in case a vendor goes out of business, the cloud solutions will also be lost which will

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impact heavily on the operations of the organizations. This will heavily impact the financial
sectors as their business as well as their brand image in the market will be gravely impacted.
Risks assessment:
Technology in the modern world is the main concept utilized for innovation. This can
also be used to get unethical access to the system leading to breaches and grave impacts. The
cyber threats occurring as data loss, user account compromising, file destroying or degrading are
the main attacks included in the cyber security aspects. The data loss from the data centers of the
financial sectors are also another cause for risks in the systems. However, these are not the only
risks faced by the financial institutions. The misalignment between businesses and information
technology strategies and management decisions are also faced by these financial sectors as well
(McNeil, Frey & Embrechts, 2015). However, the presence of internet access for the access to
the system has made the intrusions of several breaches to the system including malwares and
viruses. The cyber threats occurring as data loss, user account compromising, file destroying or
degrading are the main attacks included in the cyber security aspects. This is the main cause for
data loss from the data centers. This is the main reason for the company to lose their brand value
as well as business in the market.
The risk assessment of information technology has made the possible integration of risk
management techniques that helps in addressing the risks requirements and their mitigation. The
main objective of the information technology risk management is the removal of loopholes in the
system that helps in the mitigation of the various threats and vulnerabilities. The risk
management of the information technology is included in a wide scope of enterprise solutions
(Hopkin, 2017). The development and maintenance of management systems for referring to the
information security aspects shows the adoption of a systematic approach to mitigate the security

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risks present in the financial services (Haywood et al., 2017). According to the framework of the
information security, these risks assessments can be used to reduce or stop the impacts caused by
the vulnerabilities or threats and also to apply the solutions to increase the business level which
was not present to address them.
The framework for the information security aspects need to reference the inside attacks as
well as the outside attacks that can affect the businesses of these financial solutions. The various
internal threats to the financial solutions are the operational problems in the IT aspects, failure to
comply with the enterprise solutions and mergers between various financial organizations or
companies. The outside threats include the economic changes in the market, rise of competitions
and innovations in the applications of the technology. Both of these types of threats can be used
to influence the actions of the information security aspects. The risk and vulnerabilities due to
these threats are to be referenced and evaluated for ensuring successful business continuity
(Bruhn et al., 2017). The adoption of certain methods for the identification of the risks,
estimation of the impacts made by the risks and the evaluation of them is necessary to mitigate
them.
The information security in the business aspects refers to the various risks and
vulnerabilities corresponding to the development, use, impact and selection of the parameters
inside the financial sectors. The various IT related problems that can possibly cause an impact on
the business operations are included in the risks in security. Their impacts can range from losing
business for some time to widespread losing of customers. This can have great impacts on both
the customers as well as the financial services. The cyber attack compromises the accounts of the
customers making great difficulties for them (Hsiao, 2017). This in turn causes the customers to
lose their faith from the financial organization concerned. Thus, the presence of risks

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management framework is to be integrated. The ERM scheme is another method that has been
applied by financial sectors that has helped them to enhance their process of decision making
(Glendon, Clarke & McKenna, 2016). The main objective of the information technology risk
management is the removal of loopholes in the system that helps in the mitigation of the various
threats and vulnerabilities.
Due to the application of the risks management framework, the business operations and
the business continuity is maintained which helps to keep the brand image in the market. The
risk management process is the main aim for the information security framework. The
information security in the business aspects refers to the various risks and vulnerabilities
corresponding to the development, use, impact and selection of the parameters inside the
financial sectors. Their impacts can even range to destroy the flow of the business (Lechner &
Gatzert, 2017).
These can be done by the adoption of certain methods for the identification of the risks,
estimation of the impacts made by the risks and the evaluation of them is necessary to mitigate
them. These include the adoption of regulatory frameworks for identifying the risks in the
systems. This process is followed by the estimation of the risks impacts. The analysis used for
the estimation is the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the risks. The last method of
mitigating these risks is the application of the universal standards to reference them.
Principles of information technologies in risks management:
The various risks mitigation procedures are included in the information security
framework. These helps in addressing the various risks in security and privacy related issues
present in the financial sectors. The ERM scheme is another method that has been applied by