Bank Solutions Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity:

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CSIA 485 Project #3 Detailed Assignment Description

Select one of the security technologies you identified in either P1 or P2. Research and evaluate its capabilities, costs, maintenance requirements, flexibility, and feasibility for implementation. The analysis should include pros and cons, potential barriers to success, vulnerabilities eliminated or reduced, convergence issues, first adopters (if the technology is new), and any other issues you deem important to consider. Use the technical evaluation methodology information obtained and discussed in previous courses such as CSIA 303 or 459.

The deliverable for this assignment will be a minimum 5 page, double-spaced paper using Times New Roman 12 font and APA style formatting for citations and references. It will also include a minimum of 5 references. The Title/Cover page, illustrations (tables/charts/graphs), or references are not part of the page count but are required for the assignment. The grading rubric provides additional details as to what should be included in the paper. Your instructor may provide an APA style template to use for this paper.

Rubric Name: Project 3: Technology Evaluation

Introduction and Conclusion

Clearly describes and introduces the paper. Provides clear background information and facts to support the paper.

Basically describes and introduces the paper. Basically provides background information and facts to support the paper.

Weakly describes and introduces the paper. Some background information and facts provided to support the paper.

Little description or introduction of the paper. Lacks background information and facts to support the paper. (Or, inappropriate or excessive copying from other authors' work.)

No description and doesn’t introduce the paper. No background information or facts to support the paper.

Clearly summarizes the main points from the paper. These include the capabilities, costs, maintenance requirements, flexibility and feasibility for implementation.

Basically summarizes the main points from the paper. These include the capabilities, costs, maintenance requirements, flexibility and feasibility for implementation.

Weakly summarizes the main points from the paper. These include the capabilities, costs, maintenance requirements, flexibility and feasibility for implementation.

Little summery of the main points from the paper. May include the capabilities, costs, maintenance requirements, flexibility or feasibility for implementation. (Or, inappropriate or excessive copying from other authors' work.)

Doesn’t summarize the main points from the paper. Doesn’t include the capabilities, costs, maintenance requirements, flexibility or feasibility for implementation.

Research and Evaluation

Clearly explains the capabilities of the technology.

Basically explains the capabilities of the technology.

Weakly explains the capabilities of the technology.

Little explanation of the capabilities of the technology. (Or, inappropriate or excessive copying from other authors' work.)

No explanation on the capabilities of the technology.

Clearly explains the costs involved with the technology.

Basically explains the costs involved with the technology.

Weakly explains the costs involved with the technology.

Little explanation on the costs involved with the technology. (Or, inappropriate or excessive copying from other authors' work.)

No explanation on the costs involved with the technology.

Clearly explains the maintenance requirements of the new technology.

Basically explains the maintenance requirements of the new technology.

Weakly explains the maintenance requirements of the new technology.

Little explanation on the maintenance requirements of the new technology. (Or, inappropriate or excessive copying from other authors' work.)

No explanation on the maintenance requirements of the new technology.

Clearly explains the flexibility of the technology.

Basically explains the flexibility of the technology.

Weakly explains the flexibility of the technology.

Little explanation on the flexibility of the technology. (Or, inappropriate or excessive copying from other authors' work.)

No explanation on the flexibility of the technology.

Clearly explains the feasibility of implementing the technology.

Basically explains the feasibility of implementing the technology.

Weakly explains the feasibility of implementing the technology.

Little explanation on the feasibility of implementing the technology. (Or, inappropriate or excessive copying from other authors' work.)

No explanation of feasibility in implementing the technology.

Clearly explains the pros and cons, barriers, issues, vulnerabilities, first adopters (if technology is new), etc. Must cover at least 5 areas.

Basically explains the pros and cons, barriers, issues, vulnerabilities, first adopters (if technology is new), etc. Must cover at least 3 areas.

Weakly explains the pros and cons, barriers, issues, vulnerabilities, first adopters (if technology is new), etc. Must cover at least one (1) area.

Little explanation of the pros and cons, barriers, issues, vulnerabilities, first adopters (if technology is new), etc. May cover one (1) of the areas. (Or, inappropriate or excessive copying from other authors' work.)

No explanation of the pros and cons, barriers, issues, vulnerabilities, first adopters (if technology is new), etc.

Finds and Applies Knowledge

Used at least 5 authoritative or scholarly sources in paper. One must be NIST SP 800-53. No APA style errors in sources.

Used at least 3 authoritative or scholarly sources in paper. One must be NIST SP 800-53. No more than 1 APA errors in sources.

Used at least 2 authoritative or scholarly sources in paper. One must be NIST SP 800-53. No more than 2 APA errors in sources.

May have used 1 authoritative or scholarly source in paper. May use NIST SP 800-53. May not have used APA style formatting.

No authoritative or scholarly sources used in paper. NIST SP 800-53 not mentioned.

All sources cited. No errors in citing material in paper.

All but 1 source cited. Had no more than 5 citing errors in paper.

All but 2 sources cited. Had no more than 10 citing errors in paper.

All but 3 sources cited. Had less than 15 APA citing errors in paper.

No sources cited or had more than 15 APA citing errors in paper.

Organization, Execution and Appearance

Prepared MS Word document, used consistent formatting, section subheadings, submitted one file, used instructor provided template, correct coversheet and separate reference page and meets minimum page count.

MS Word document didn’t follow up to two (2) of the following: used consistent formatting, section subheadings, submitted one file, used instructor provided template, correct coversheet and separate reference page and meets minimum page count.

MS Word document didn’t follow up to four (4) of the following: used consistent formatting, section subheadings, submitted one file, used instructor provided template, correct coversheet and separate reference page and meets minimum page count.

MS Word document followed only one (1) of the following: used consistent formatting, section subheadings, submitted one file, used instructor provided template, correct coversheet and separate reference page and meets minimum page count.

Non MS Word document didn’t any of the following: used consistent formatting, section subheadings, submitted one file, used instructor provided template, correct coversheet and separate reference page and meets minimum page count.

No grammar, use of first/second person, spelling or punctuation errors.

Less than 5 grammar errors, use of first/second person, spelling or punctuation errors.

Less than 10 grammar errors, use of first/second person, spelling or punctuation errors.

Less than 15 grammar errors, use of first/second person, spelling or punctuation errors.

More than 15 grammar errors, use of first/second person, spelling or punctuation errors.

Overall Score

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Journal of Information Systems Education, Vol. 22(2) Teaching Case Bank Solutions Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity: A Case Study for CSIA 485 Steve Camara Senior Manager, KPMG LLP 1021 E Cary Street, Suite 2000 Richmond, VA 23219 scamara@kpmg.com Robert Crossler Vishal Midha Assistant Professor Computer Information Systems The University of Texas – Pan American recrossler@utpa.edu, vmidha@utpa.edu Linda Wallace Associate Professor Accounting and Information Systems Virginia Tech wallacel@vt.edu ABSTRACT Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity (DR/BC) planning is an issue that students will likely come in contact with as they enter industry. Many different fields require this knowledge, whether employees are advising a company implementing a new DR/BC program, auditing a company’s existing program, or implementing and/or serving as a key participant in a company program. Often times in the classroom it is difficult to find real world practice for students to apply the theories taught. The information in this case provides students with real world data to practice what they would do if they were on an engagement team evaluating a DR/BC plan. Providing students with this opportunity better prepares them for one of the jobs they could perform after graduation. Keywords: Case study, Computer security, Critical thinking, Experiential learning & education, Information assurance and security, Role-play, Security, Team projects 117 Journal of Information Systems Education, Vol. 22(2) 2. CASE TEXT 2. 1 Company Background Bank Solutions, Inc. (a pseudonym), founded in 1973 by the First Presidential Bank, a major bank of its time, is a provider of item processing services i to community banks, savings and loan associations, Internet banks, and small- to mid-size credit unions. It offers a full range of services, including in-clearing and Proof of Deposit (POD) processing, item capture, return and exception item processing, image archive storage and retrieval, and customer statement rendering. Bank Solutions was formed in 1973 when the Chief Operating Officer of First Presidential Bank, a major commercial bank, recognized an opportunity. Since item processing functions are standardized (they have to be in order for originating and receiving financial institutions to clear customer transactions) and scalable with increases in item processing volumes, they were able to offer these services to other financial institutions wishing to reduce operating expense and focus on growth strategies and other core business functions. First Presidential marketed these services under the Bank Solutions brand name. Over the next 15 years, Bank Solutions enjoyed modest growth. By 1988, it served 41 small- to mid-size financial institutions. It had not, however, developed a market presence outside of the Northwestern Region of the United States, as management had hoped. This was primarily because Bank Solutions was unable to compete with other item-processing service providers that had developed proprietary software systems considered “top of the line.” To make matters worse, at the time almost one quarter of Bank Solutions‟ client base was saving and loan associations (saving and loans). As a result of the Savings and Loan crisis, 60% of Bank Solutions‟ savings and loan customer base failed over the six years spanning 1985–1991, thus stunting the outsourcer‟s growth. The related slow down of the financial services and real estate industries and the recession of 1990–1991 presented further headwinds to the growth objectives of First Presidential management. In 1994, First Presidential sold off Bank Solutions. Under new management, Bank Solutions thrived. Keys to the company‟s renewed success included the following: • The development of key strategic partnerships with other industry participants, including data clearing houses and financial institution core processing system ii outsourcers. • The introduction of a new company culture that focused on open door management, mentoring, and enhanced employee benefits. • The development of a proprietary, state of the art item processing system that uses state-of-the-art Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology to achieve character recognition accuracies that were previously unheard of. • The implementation of “remote capture” technologiesiii to meet electronic banking initiatives and regulations such as “Check 21.” • The upgrade or replacement of other administrative information systems, including the company‟s financial reporting system. This helped to increase operational effectiveness and efficiencies. From 1995–2008, Bank Solutions enjoyed unprecedented growth. During that timeframe, the company expanded operations to 18 item processing facilities, two data centers in which the item processing system was hosted, and 345 financial institutions. 2.2 Current Scenario (2011) Douglas Smith, the Chief Information Officer for Bank Solutions, was one of the original members of “new management” and responsible for many of Bank Solutions‟ past successes. A solid, middle-sized company with continued growth potential, Bank Solutions has become a target for a leveraged corporate buyout. This is an attractive situation for Douglas and other members of executive management. Several of these individuals are close to retirement; and initial indications are that the price of the buyout will be very favorable for members of executive management. The CEO and other influential members of executive management want Bank Solutions to remain an attractive purchase option and, as a result, have contracted the services of your team as an outside consultant to identify operating and regulatory risks and advise them on control measures to mitigate the risks. 2.3 Risk Assessment Task As members of the engagement team performing the risk assessment, your team has been given the task of assessing Bank Solutions‟ incident handling, business continuity, and disaster recovery strategy. In order to perform the assessment, preliminary interviews with Douglas Smith, the Data Center Managers, Systems Engineers and Network Architect in each of Banking Solutions‟ data centers, and the IT Managers and Day and Night Operations Managers from seven of the largest item processing facilities were conducted. Additionally, the following documentation related to Bank Solutions‟ security incident management, DR/BC planning activities was reviewed: • Flow charts that diagram the item processing operations and data flow between Bank Solutions item processing facilities and data centers and outside entities (see Appendix A) • A diagram of Bank Solutions‟ network architecture 118 Journal of Information Systems Education, Vol. 22(2) • Bank Solutions‟ Data Center Disaster Recovery and • • • • • • • • • • • Business Continuity Plan (DRBCP) Policies, procedures, guidelines, and standards related to security incident response Item Processing Facility DRBCPs Results from the most recently completed DRBCP test/exercise Distribution list for the DRBCP Bank Solutions‟ Backup and Recovery Policy. Screen prints of the configurations from Bank Solutions‟ backup utility (these configurations show what server shares are subject to automated backup and the frequency of those backups) Contracts with the off-site storage provider A system-generated listing of access to event logging servers A list of individuals who have been provided access to recall backup tapes from the off-site storage vendor. Screenshots of the Intrusion Detection System (IDS), firewall, and other event logging capability configurations Excerpts from the IDS and firewall event logs and management‟s manually maintained incident tracking log. 2.4 Facts: Risk Assessment Findings Based on the discussions held with the management and a review of the documentation provided, you note the following facts: 1. With the assistance of an external consultant, Bank Solutions wrote its current data center DRBCP in 2007. It was last updated in January 2009. 2. According to Douglas, the data center DRBCP was last tested in 2007. Testing activities consisted of a conceptual, table-top walkthrough of the DRBCP conducted by Douglas with the Data Center Managers and Network and Systems Engineers. Item processing facility DRBCPs have not yet been tested. 3. Site-specific DRBCPs have been written for the five largest item processing facilities. The remaining item processing facilities have a generic “small center” DRBCP template that was distributed to and customized by facility management in June 2010. Four item processing facilities have not yet completed the customization exercise. 4. DRBCPs contain several sections, including the following: • Emergency/crisis response procedures • Business recovery procedures • “Return to normal” procedures • Various appendices Recovery Time Objectives and Recovery Point iv Objectives for each critical business process and system were not identified in the DRBCP. The following details, most of which are included in the DRBCP appendices, are also documented in the text of the DRBCP: 119 • Critical systems, including detailed hardware and software inventories • Critical business processes and process owners • Alternative processing facility addresses and directions • “Calling Trees” (notification listings) • Critical plan participant roles, responsibilities, and requirements Critical vendor contact listings Key business forms Specific recovery procedures for key systems Procedures for managing public relations and communications Based on a review of DRBCP distribution lists, it appears that not all key plan participants have a copy of the plan. When this was discussed with Douglas, he responded that copies of all DRBCPs are stored on the network (which is replicated across both data centers and via backup tape). Critical plan participants have not been trained to use DRBCPs. Bank Solutions has implemented a robust host-based IDS, including detailed event logging and reporting capabilities. However, neither the DRBCP nor any other policy, standard, guideline, or procedure addresses security incident handling steps, including escalation points of contact and procedures for preserving the forensic qualities of logical evidence. Event logging is also performed when power users perform specific privileged activities on production servers and selected administrative back office systems. Interestingly, it was noted that several of the same power users whose actions are recorded onto event logs also have write access to the logs themselves. A review of the network diagram and conversations with the Network Architect reveal that redundancies have been implemented at the network perimeter (e.g., routers, firewalls, IDS, load balancers, etc.). Banking Solutions has organized their DR/BC program according to a “sister center” format; that is, each data center serves as the other‟s “hot site” processing location and each item processing facility has been assigned a corresponding item processing facility to serve as a backup processing location. Neither the DRBCPs nor any other documentation outline specific processing responsibilities for backup facilities. On a daily basis, transaction detail and item image files from the current day‟s processing operations are uploaded from each item processing facility to their regional data center (see Appendix A). At the data centers, electronic vaulting has been established whereby all e-mail, file, and application servers and databases at the data center are continuously backed up to the other data center via dual dedicated fiber optic lines. A data backup and recovery utility has been implemented in each data center and the item processing facilities. Full backups of critical data files, software programs, and configurations are performed • • • • 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. Journal of Information Systems Education, Vol. 22(2) once a week and incremental backups are performed on a daily basis Monday through Friday. 14. At one item processing facility, backup jobs have routinely failed due to unknown causes. When the topic was discussed with the IT Manager on duty, he shrugged the failures off noting that the core financial institution transaction data and images are transmitted to and archived at the Bank Solutions Data Center East on a daily basis. 15. At the item processing facilities, the management has been tasked with contracting the off-site storage of backup tapes. At one of the item processing facilities, management has contracted the bank across the street to store its backup tapes in a safety deposit box. At another item processing facility, the night Operations Manager stores the backup tapes in a safe at his home. At a third item processing center, tapes are stored in a shed at the back of the building. ii 120 Journal of Information Systems Education, Vol. 22(2) This is individual project. As a member of an engagement team in charge of performing the incident handling, DR/BC risk assessment for Bank Solutions. you should read the case background and the facts identified in the interviews. Individual Work: For all of the facts/ findings, prepare a written report that lists the condition(s) that present risks to Bank Solutions as well as proposed recommendations for addressing those conditions. 121 Journal of Information Systems Education, Vol. 22(2) Appendix A This case was developed solely for class discussion. While the situation described in this case is based on realistic events, the Bank Solutions is a fictional organization. Further, the names, product/service offerings, and the names of all individuals in the case are fictional. Any resemblance to actual companies, offerings, or individuals is accidental. 122 Copyright of Journal of Information Systems Education is the property of Journal of Information Systems Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
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Running head: CLOUD DATA STORAGE TECHNOLOGY

Cloud Data Storage Technology
Name
Tutor
Institution
Course
Date

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CLOUD DATA STORAGE TECHNOLOGY

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Introduction
Data security is an area of concern for every business. Businesses have a collection of
important data ranging from private employee information to financial records. This data can be
easily compromised either by being wrongfully edited or deleted. A simple data breach could
seriously damage a business and can cause stressful experiences. Due to the risks involved, data
security through proper back up is key and every business should ensure that all critical data is
properly stored. Since digital data generation was invented, organizations have always backed
their data and devices used overtime include magnetic tape recordings, Hard drives, CDs and
DVDs, and other portable disks. Storage medium has changed widely due to rapid change in
technologies.
In today’s modern and highly technological world, a more sophisticated technology of
Backing up in cloud has been adopted (P, 2016). Backing up in cloud is an online method which
saves data on servers based in the cloud. The online backup involves a copy of data being sent to
a proprietary or to a public network in an off-site server. Online remote backups were first
adopted in 1987 and increased in numbers during the boom of dot-com in late 1990s. Today, the
services are now provided using Software as a service(SaaS), and Platform as a service(PaaS).
Overview of the technology
The backup servers are usually hosted by service providers who act as a third party and
charge their customers fee based on capacity of usage, bandwidth or can be based on number of
users. The off- site server can either be owned by the service provider or by the client. However,
the service charge back methods would skill apply in a similar way. The backup systems are
built around client applications which run on schedules which are determined by the level of

CLOUD DATA STORAGE TECHNOLOGY

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services purchased by the client. A customer can request for ...


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