After a recent mishap in Kamal Electrical Company Limited, one of its directors has suggested that the use of external storage devices should be prohibited altogether. However, the IT manager is of the view that this suggestion is not practical.
Required:
(a) Explain how you would justify the IT Manager’s contention.
(b) Identify the threats involved in the use of external storage devices and suggest steps to minimize them.
Answered By
mpuertz
40 points
N/A
#87267
Quality controls of Information Technology from organization perspectives
Prohibiting the use of external storage devices is not a good move. If there is huge data stored and the computer cannot handle it, using these devices is one of the most efficient ways of solving such problem. Also, they serve as storage for back-ups. However, usage of these devices may be abused. Since these devices are mobile, they can be easily lost, stolen, or destroyed for worst. Another is, they may be used to carry some Malware which can cause trouble to the computer. But with proper and ethical use of these devices, data storage management will help improve Kamal Electrical Company Limited.
Answered By
simmy
0 points
N/A
#87269
Quality controls of Information Technology from organization perspectives
In computing, one of the storages that we can use in transferring data from the computer unit to another is through external data storage device. We have external hard drives, memory cards, memory sticks, DVD’s and memory spot chips. Data security is one of the valued investments in any institution.  With this there are few things that an institution should consider in making a decision of allowing or not allowing personnel in the company in using such devices.
There are great advantages in using this device but there are also some threats that we have to be cautious. The advantages in using the device: Â It is portable, and it lessens the threat of corruption of data. The disadvantages in using the device are: security in terms of lost or stolen or damage, time consuming and limited.
Here is a chart that will show you the threats and countermeasure in using the device:
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Threats
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Countermeasure
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Data Theft
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The inability to discriminate between legitimate and illegitimate devices. Restriction to the system should be created to allow only legitimate devices and the company should set policies. There are some software currently available in the market, one of the sample application is GFI EndPointSecurity, it gives you direct control over what devices are in use on your network.
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Limited
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One of the few things that limited in using external drive is the support. When your external device get damage how will we recover the content of the device. One of the software that we can use in recovering files is PC Tools File Recover 8.
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The uncontrollable use of external devices for the institution’s personnel is a great threat to any institution’s security and stability. The minds of the personnel that an institution have is unpredictable, as to counter measure we can have some policy setting but best of all we should deploy software to secure our data.
