Ipremier Case Write Up h223a

1. What is a denial of service attack? Denial of service (DOS) attack is an attempt to make a piece of hardware like a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended s. This attack is performed by sending out a flood of information packets that gridlocks the networks resources, rendering them unavailable. Wikipedia provides the following information about the federal governing of the crime: “Denial-of-service attacks are considered violations of the Internet Architecture Board's Internet proper use policy, and also violate the acceptable use policies of virtually all Internet service providers. They also commonly constitute violations of the laws of individual nations.” (Wikipedia, 2015) How well did iPremier perform during the seventy-five minute attack? If you were Bob Turley, what, if anything, might you have done differently during the crisis? IPremier was unprepared for the 75 minutes attack. This might have come due to too much faith in the Qdata's abilities to control these situation and lack of vision with regards to any threats. IPremier had contracted with Qdata, an Internet hosting business that provided them with most of their computer equipment and internet connection. Qdata was not viewed as an industry leader and was selected because it was located close to iPremier's corporate headquarters. However, despite being unprepared, I do believe iPremier did perform well enough during the 75 minutes attack; the situation was handled professionally by all parties involved. Yet, even though they handled the matter professionally, there is a point that the CIO didn’t handle too well. He is responsible for whatever happens to the company's reputation, be it good or bad. At the moment they were not sure if their systems had been intruded or if there was some sort of distributed DOS attack. This was because there was not a crisis management strategy in place. Evidently, the company also did not have equipment such as proper firewall to help subdue the problem. If the attack had not ended as soon as it did, and coupled with a possible intrusion, the consequences on iPremier would have been much more severe. If I was Bob Turley I would have ordered the system to be fully shut down even if it meant losing the data that would help the company figure out what had happened. If the website was hacked, it means customers information such as credit cards and social security numbers would have been compromised. I believe shutting it down would have been the safer move in managing the potential risk. Dealing with the stolen data and expense of the fallout of people’s personal information leaking is far more detrimental to the company than losing information about how the DOS occurred. 2. What information about these events should iPremier share with its customers and the public? Justify your answer. I am not sure that a disaster such as this intrusion should be regarded as public relations unless people’s identities were stolen. If it is shared, I believe they may have to share more information about what further steps to secure the infrastructure are planned and are taken to prevent it from happening again. These steps include integrating a well formulated framework for security management. If shared with the public, rehearsing the response is crucial to communicate the proper information to ensure the public can still trust iPremier. Well thought and planned out response (precrises), to major incidents makes managers more confident and effective during real crises. Even if the incident occurs in a different form from which was practiced, practice makes a crisis situation more familiar and better prepares managers to improvise solutions. This point could be applied to question 4 as well.

3. In the aftermath of the attack, what would you be worried about? What actions would you recommend? In the shadow of the attack I would be worried about another DOS. However, what would be more detrimental is if the attack took place at a high traffic time of the day rather than 4:00 am when it is not as productive or where network traffic on the website is not at a peak. In the aftermath, managers of iPremier’s infrastructure will need to rebuild parts of it. In order to restore the infrastructure to it pre-incident moment, they will be required to erase and rebuild everything. If configuration and procedures have been carefully documented in advance, recovery can happen immediately. If not this could be a cumbersome and lengthy endeavor. I recommend that actions will need to be taken to investigate to understand what exactly happened during the attack. This will reveal the actions that need to be taken to prevent this from happening in the future. Most importantly, the company owes its clients and business partner’s detailed information about what happened so that all involved can determine the consequences of the attack. In crises management and in formulating actions after a crisis, it is important to communicate with all parties involved. I would then recommend moving forward with integrating crisis incident procedures and a well formulated security management framework for protecting the company in the future. 4. Now that the attack has ended, what can iPremier do to prepare for another such attack? Recommend a plan that will help iPremier avoid another such incident. Risk management is necessary. I stated in question 2 the importance of having a crises plan in place in case a breech may occur is extremely important. This crises plan needs to have well documented emergency procedures. A pre-crisis plan of practices in place makes incidents more manageable. The following plan needs to include: sound infrastructure design, careful documentation, disciplined execution of operating procedures, and an established crisis management plan. A sound infrastructure design is infrastructure that has been designed with a contingency of sound recoverability and tolerance for failures. By this design the losses associated with a Dos or a breech are more likely to be contained and easier to manage. IPremier will need to find a better internet service provider if Qdata fails to update its infrastructure and technology. Careful Documentation ensures that crisis management is precise with the most important critical details; reliable, accurate, and careful documentation saves time, costs, and increases confidence when dealing with a crisis. Proper documentation maintains a baseline of knowledge about infrastructure configurations. Disciplined execution of operating procedures is only as good as a plan and can only be followed if it is documented well. These procedures, when executed properly make the diagnosis of problems more effective. Scheduled infrastructure audits uncover lurking problems or vulnerabilities and must be performed often. Finally, established crisis management procedures are procedures for managing incidents. They effectively guide the diagnosis of problems, help manager’s decision-making efforts more efficient, and specify who should be involved in problem-solving activities.