SBM4304: IS Security and Risk Management Report - Amazon

This report analyzes the IS security and risk management of Amazon, a major e-commerce and cloud computing company. It begins by highlighting Amazon's reliance on information systems for various functions, including consumer preferences, web services, and internal management. The report then identifies key vulnerabilities within Amazon's information systems, such as increasing hacking activities, privacy concerns, and data transfer risks. It discusses how these vulnerabilities can lead to system quality problems, including interruptions, data breaches, and financial losses. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of addressing these security and privacy threats to maintain business operations and protect sensitive data.

IS SECURITY
AND
RISK MANAGEMENT

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Contents
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................1
Use of information system.................................................................................................................1
Vulnerability of information systems................................................................................................1
Effects of vulnerabilities....................................................................................................................2
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................3
References.............................................................................................................................................4

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INTRODUCTION
In the past few years, information has become the key to success of any organisation. There
are many companies that are highly dependent on the information so as to conduct their
business (Laudon & Laudon, 2016). Amazon is one such big company that operates its
function with the help of information. This report illustrates the vulnerability related to
selected organisation. It also signifies the way in which these vulnerabilities can affect the
quality of organisation system.
Use of information system
Amazon is one of the biggest electronic commerce and cloud computing company that is
based in USA. In Amazon the operations are done through the online mediums. Because of
this data is collected in very huge amount. This data is being used for several purposes (Ren,
Wang & Wang, 2012). Some of the uses of Information system in Amazon are:
 Consumer’s preferences: Such a huge collection of data that too related to the client
preferences or recent searches empowers the company in their real time marketing.
This is very essential in the modern day online market.
 Web services: These data helps the company in providing developers with direct
access to strong technology platform of Amazon. Using the data they can build
interface that can be used easily and can be accessed with limited efforts. This helps
the company in achieving higher consumer satisfaction as well as in bringing effective
customer relationship management.
Apart from this they also take use of data for their internal management like in human
resource management, inventory management, decision making and many more.
Vulnerability of information systems
Information system is a complex system that is linked with various knowledge sources. These
sources are vulnerable to many types of threats. Some are internal and some are external
threats (Khajeh-Hosseini, Sommerville & Sriram, 2010). Since the Amazon’s information
system is connected with various stakeholders and has a network of millions of devices. Such
a huge network makes it vulnerable to cyber security challenges.

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 Increasing hacking activities: There are many hackers that are in search of stealing
very crucial data related to the company especially the ones that are linked with
financial transactions (O'Brien & Marakas, 2005). With even best of security
measures adopted by Amazon, the systems of Amazon are vulnerable to any kind of
attack. The attacks are also done to damage the system. This is done by the hackers
with the help of virus. It is highly dangerous for the cloud service providers of this
scale.
 Privacy: Since the cloud services is provided by Amazon for itself and for other
people hence not only the vulnerability of security are present but they are also
vulnerable to privacy concerns. The personal data of the stakeholders are always at
stake. Cloud service providers like Amazon needs to rethink about the way in which
data will be managed so that no privacy concerns get generated.
 Transfer of data: Since huge amount of data related to business is transferred from one
stakeholder to another which also contains private data hence selection of proper
channels is highly essential. Improper selection of channels or protocols makes the
information vulnerable to going into the wrong hands.
Effects of vulnerabilities
It is clear from the above part that there are certain kinds of things to which information
systems are vulnerable to. It is essential for Amazon to make sure that all these are eliminated
through various measures (CloudHesive, 2018). This is essential because if proper care
towards this is not taken then it might affect the system quality.
These systems are vulnerable to increasing hacker’s activities as well as connection of the
system on the large network. Connecting with a large network like IOT increases the number
of nodes through which attacks could be possible.
These vulnerabilities can affect the organisational system quality as they tend to interrupt the
efficiency of the system. The attacks with virus can slowdown the pace of the system or it
may interrupt business in any part of the world. If any private data gets leaked then it may
cause image failure for the company and at the same time could lead to business lose (Cluley,
2015). If the channels are not secured then errors are also possible to happen in the
operations.

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Conclusion
From the above based report it can be concluded that Amazon is one of the biggest company
whole operations are highly dependent on the information they gather through their business.
The Information system at Amazon is vulnerable to security and privacy threats. If not taken
care in a proper manner may lead to various types of loss which is not good in the modern
day business.

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References
CloudHesive, (2018) How Amazon Inspector Finds Compliance and Security Issues.
Retrieved from: https://cloudhesive.com/amazon-inspector-finds-compliance-
security-issues/
Cluley, G. (2015) Uh-oh. Has an Amazon account security problem been uncovered?.
Retrieved from: https://www.grahamcluley.com/amazon-account-security-problem-
uncovered/
Khajeh-Hosseini, A., Sommerville, I., & Sriram, I. (2010) Research challenges for enterprise
cloud computing. arXiv preprint arXiv:1001.3257.
Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2016) Management information system. Pearson Education
India.
O'Brien, J. A., & Marakas, G. M. (2005) Introduction to information systems (Vol. 13). New
York City, USA: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Ren, K., Wang, C., & Wang, Q. (2012) Security challenges for the public cloud. IEEE
Internet Computing, 16(1), 69-73.