Ransomware Impact on Revenue Cycle

This report assesses the impact of ransomware attacks on the revenue cycle of Motherboards and More Pty Ltd, a medium-sized Australian business. It identifies weaknesses in the company's revenue cycle, including reliance on credit purchases, inefficient shipment processes using a single dock, lack of a product database, and a high discount policy. These weaknesses lead to slow profit acquisition, errors in shipments, operational problems with manual product tracking, and reduced sales due to the discount. The report proposes mitigation strategies such as reviewing customer credit scores, implementing delivery tracking software, creating a product database, and revising the discount policy. Furthermore, it addresses the threat of ransomware attacks, recommending the use of antivirus software, employee security awareness training, and regular operating system patching to enhance cybersecurity and business continuity.

Running head: IMPACT OF RANSOMWARE ON REVENUE CYCLE
Impact of ransomware on revenue cycle
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author Note

1IMPACT OF RANSOMWARE ON REVENUE CYCLE
Executive summary
This report discusses about the threats evident from the ransomware attacks on the organizational
system. The chosen organization for this report is Motherboards and More Pty Ltd. The report
also discusses about the risks and the measures to reference the ransomware attacks.

2IMPACT OF RANSOMWARE ON REVENUE CYCLE
Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Discussion:.......................................................................................................................................3
1. Overview of revenue cycle:....................................................................................................3
2. Identification of the weaknesses:.............................................................................................4
A. Weaknesses:........................................................................................................................4
B. Impacts of these weaknesses:..............................................................................................4
C. Controls:..............................................................................................................................5
3. Overview of the ransomware attack:.......................................................................................6
4. Controls to address the ransomware attacks:...........................................................................7
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................8
References:......................................................................................................................................9

3IMPACT OF RANSOMWARE ON REVENUE CYCLE
Introduction:
This report discusses about the threats evident from the ransomware attacks on the
organizational system. The report includes an analysis of the company’s revenue generations and
recommends the controls needed to address them. The following analysis also includes a
discussion about ransomware attacks and its measures.
Discussion:
Motherboards and More Pty Ltd is a medium size, exclusive, Australian business
organization. They are responsible for the production of motherboards, graphics card and
computer chips. In addition, they are a key provider to computer developers and repairers.
Motherboards and More Pty Ltd is present in business for 8 years and includes an incorporated
ERP framework for their operational demands.
1. Overview of revenue cycle:
The company receives order from their customers. These are usually done by email or
telephone. These orders are placed in their website. These orders are then processed and sent to
the dock, which is used to collect shipments coming and going for deliveries. However, the
increase in sales made were the cause of many errors which resulted in customers getting wrong
shipments. In addition delayed shipment was also another result.
2. Identification of the weaknesses:
The report includes an analysis of the company’s revenue generations and recommends
the controls needed to address them.

4IMPACT OF RANSOMWARE ON REVENUE CYCLE
A. Weaknesses:
The presence of weakness in Motherboards and More Pty Ltd is evident due to the
emergence of various control related problems.
The credit purchase of products is the first weakness, which is the main cause for slow
profit acquisition.
The next weakness is the dock usage for addressing shipments coming and going for
deliveries (Zurich, 2017).
Another weakness is the company’s absence of a database for the maintenance of
products records.
In addition the last weakness evident from the revenue cycle is the presence of discount
option which is making all the customers opt for this plan.
B. Impacts of these weaknesses:
The first weakness is the purchase on credit which accounts for the use of products in a
30-day trial. This is a reason for the hindrance in sales operation for the first month from the
delivery. As the profit acquisition is done from the company’s sales, credit purchases can lead to
less acquisition rates for profit. In addition, the main risks in this process is the credit purchases
by clients who do not possess a good report.
The use of the dock for the operations of shipments is another weakness. The main
operations include placing the products serially for easy transport. Furthermore, the large
products lining to the increased sales can lead to wrong product shipment to the customers.
Another weakness is the database’s absence as all companies need to maintain records of
products (Zurich, 2017). The manual recording of the products that are returned might have
major operational problems if the number of returned products exceeds to a very high level.

5IMPACT OF RANSOMWARE ON REVENUE CYCLE
Lastly, the accepted discount rates accounting to 2% causes less sales, which is seen from
the revenue cycle as the whole lot of customers are opting for this mode in returns.
C. Controls:
This portion includes the controls to be applied for addressing the risks involved in the
revenue cycle.
Firstly, the company needs to give less credit because of reduced rate for sales.
Furthermore, the customers associated with good credit scores, should get credit for maintaining
the current market rank (Chen & Tsou, 2012). The company can address such issues by
partnering with a financial service company to assess the customer scores.
Secondly, the company must address the tracking needs for the shipments. This can be
done by adopting commercial software which will be responsible for tracking the shipments.
This will remove any flaws in the system. For example, the On Time 360 ("Courier Software &
Delivery Dispatch - OnTime 360", 2017) is one such commercial software.
In addition, Motherboards and More Pty Ltd Company have to facilitate the recordings
the products present in the warehouse. This can be done by using a database. The problems
persistent due to traditional recordings will be removed by the application of the database in the
system. The company also needs to consider the hiring of additional staffs for maintaining the
database.
Lastly, the discount plan of 2% is to be removed as most of the customers are opting for
this plan (Teixeira et al., 2012). The company needs to create alternatives like offering alternate
offers. This will not only bring in new offers for sales but will also increase the profit.
Internal control weaknesses Impact Mitigation
Purchase made on credits Hindrance in sales operation Review of credit scores
Shipment from the same dock Losing count in case of high
sales activity
Tracking of delivery services by
using software solution

6IMPACT OF RANSOMWARE ON REVENUE CYCLE
Absence of database Discrepancies in manual work Application of a database
High discount policy Customers opting for this method Needs to apply alternate
solutions
3. Overview of the ransomware attack:
The most significant cyber attack which made its impact in the whole world is the
ransomware attack. The encryption of the user files in the infected computers was the main harm
done by them. In addition, the attack led to the display of payment related messages which
demanded a sum of 300$. Moreover, the amount that had to be deposited was to be made using
the bitcoin address which kept on increasing after every two hours ("'Biggest ransomware
outbreak in history' hits nearly 100 countries", 2017). The message also incorporated threat
messages in case of not paying like doubling of the amount after three days. The most affected
systems were the healthcare systems, which had their business affected as they were unable to
access records.
4. Controls to address the ransomware attacks:
The ransomware attack was the biggest cyber attack until date which had its impact on 99
countries. This requires the Motherboards and More Pty Ltd to address concerns regarding the
control of such attacks. This is to be done to ensure continuity of business services (Sittig &
Singh, 2016).
The Motherboards and More Pty Ltd needs to ensure the obligations of security
enhancements by the applying antivirus programs in the system. These programs are very
efficient and effective in removing malwares. For example, Kaspersky and Quick Heal are the
most commonly used programs.

7IMPACT OF RANSOMWARE ON REVENUE CYCLE
The next step is the awareness of security among the common people. This involves
spreading of awareness of employees against malware or attempts for phishing attacks. The
clicks on certain malicious links sent on the email systems of the employers are also to be
reduced as this is another cause for breaches.
Lastly, the application of operating system patches is another mitigation process
that helps to disable ransomware threats. The occurrence of the attack was mainly due to the
absence of operating system (OS) patches which was the root cause for the system to be made
vulnerable (Sittig & Singh, 2016). These attacks are made to take advantages of the vulnerability
detected in the system and OS patches can help to remove the existence of such attacks.
Conclusion:
Thus, it is concluded from the analysis made on the report that the company
Motherboards and More Pty Ltd needs to analyze and discuss the recommendations discussed.
This will enable the company to apply the results of the analysis in their operations to ensure
business process operations. The report includes the addressing of ransomware attacks which is
discussed in the report that the company needs to reference for maintaining the security levels.

8IMPACT OF RANSOMWARE ON REVENUE CYCLE
References:
'Biggest ransomware outbreak in history' hits nearly 100 countries. (2017). ABC News.
Retrieved 14 September 2017, from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-13/biggest-
ransomware-outbreak-in-history-hits-nearly-100-nations/8523102
Brewer, R. (2016). Ransomware attacks: detection, prevention and cure. Network
Security, 2016(9), 5-9.
Chen, J. S., & Tsou, H. T. (2012). Performance effects of IT capability, service process
innovation, and the mediating role of customer service. Journal of Engineering and
Technology Management, 29(1), 71-94.
Courier Software & Delivery Dispatch - OnTime 360. (2017). Ontime360.com. Retrieved 14
September 2017, from https://www.ontime360.com/
Pathak, D. P., & Nanded, Y. M. (2016). A dangerous trend of cybercrime: ransomware growing
challenge. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Engineering &
Technology (IJARCET) Volume, 5.
Sittig, D. F., & Singh, H. (2016). A socio-technical approach to preventing, mitigating, and
recovering from ransomware attacks. Applied clinical informatics, 7(2), 624.
Teixeira, J., Patrício, L., Nunes, N. J., Nóbrega, L., Fisk, R. P., & Constantine, L. (2012).
Customer experience modeling: from customer experience to service design. Journal of
Service Management, 23(3), 362-376.
Zurich, L. B. (2017). Service Operations and Management.