According to O’Brien and Marakas (2005), a system is defined as “a set of interrelated components, with a clearly defined boundary, working together to achieve a common set of objectives”. Physical, biological, technological, and socioeconomic systems are illustrations of systems that can be discovered in the physical and biological sciences, in technological disciplines, and in human society.
Hence, the information systems (IS) can be “any organized combination of people, hardware, software, communications networks, and data resources that stores and retrieves, transforms, and disseminates information in an organization” ( O’Brien & Marakas, 2005) . In others words, the term information system depicts all the components and resources necessary to communicate and process the information using various information technologies (IT) comprising sundry physical devices called hardware, information processing functions and procedures called software, communications channels called networks, and stored data called data resources.
The information system’s input and output are, consecutively, the data resources and information products. To perform input, processing, output, storage, and control activities that convert data resources into information products, information system hinge on the resources of people such as end users and IS specialists, hardware, software, data, and networks. The following picture reveals a fundamental conceptual framework for the foremost components and activities of information systems.
Figure1. The components of an information system ( O’Brien & Marakas, 2005)
In this information aeon, there has been a focus on the vulnerability of these systems to malicious attacks and computer crimes since...
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Hackers have a multitude of tools and techniques to accomplish their goals, and as old tools and techniques become obsolete, new ones are created. Three questions regarding hacker tools and techniques are addressed here. What are the common tools used to conduct a denial of service attack (DoS)? What is a buffer overflow attack, and how does a SQL injection attack take place?
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While there are several competing if loosely defined definitions of cyberterrorism, Hua and Bapta have clearly broken down the core elements to illuminate the nuances between traditional terrorism and an ordinary hacker. As Hua and Bapta aptly state, "modern economies are heavily dependent upon Information Technology (IT) based information systems for survival" (Hua & Bapna 2013). Given our dependence on Information Systems, some effort of consideration must be given to securing them.
Security helps the organization meet its business objectives or mission by protecting its physical and financial resources, reputation, legal position, employees, and other tangible and intangible assets through the selection and application of appropriate safeguards. Businesses should establish roles and responsibilities of all personnel and staff members. However, a Chief Information Officer should be appointed to direct an organization’s day to day management of information assets. Supporting roles are performed by the service providers and include systems operations, whose personnel design and operate the computer systems. Each team member must be held accountable in ensuring all of the rules and policies are being followed, as well as, understanding their roles, responsibilities and functions. Organizations information processing systems are vulnerable to many threats that can inflict various types of damage that can result in significant losses (Harris, 2014). Losses can come from actions from trusted employees that defraud the system, outside hackers, or from careless data entry. The major threat to information protection is error and omissions that data entry personnel, users, system operators and programmers make. To better protect business information resources, organizations should conduct a risk analysis to see what
The Denial of Service attack (DoS), in this attack, the attacker does not actually access the system, but rather simply blocks access from legitimate users. In the words of the CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) Coordination Center (the first computer security incident response team), “A ‘Denial-of-Service’ attack is characterized by an explicit attempt by attackers to prevent legitimate users of a service from using that service” (CERT, 2003). One often-used blocking method is flooding the targeted system with so many false connection requests that it cannot respond to legitimate requests. DoS is an extremely common attack method, second only to malware. (Easttom, 2014)
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Denial of Service attacks (DoS) or Distributed Denial of Service Attacks (DDoS), have been around for many years, but only in the past few years have the frequency and magnitude of these attacks increased. They are a significant problem because they can shut an organization off from the Internet for extended periods of time and little can be done to stop them. DoS attacks occur when computer resources become unavailable to legitimate users after being exhausted by false requests for information (Houle and Weaver 1).
The computer is considered one of the most important technological advances of the twentieth century. Security and privacy issues have been in existence long before the computer became a vital component of organizations' operations. Nevertheless, the operating features of a computer make it a double-edged sword. Computer technologies with reliable error detection and recording capabilities, permit the invasion of a supposedly secure environment to occur on a grand scale and go undetected. Furthermore, computer and communications technology permit the invasion of a persons' privacy and likewise go undetected. Two forces threaten privacy: one, the growth of information technology with its enhanced capacity for surveillance, communication, computation, storage and retrieval and two, the more insidious threat, the increased value of information in decision making. Information has become more vital in the competitive environment, thus, decision makers covet it even if it viol!
Whitman, M., & Mattord, H. (2010). Management of information security. (3rd ed., p. 6). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
capacity and performance. However, as networks enable more and more applications and are available to more and more users, they become ever more vulnerable to a wider range of security threats. To combat those threats and ensure that e-business transactions are not compromised, security technology must play a major role in today's networks.
Information technology is the application of computers and telecommunication equipment to store, retrieve, transmit, and manipulate data. This includes distributing and manufacturing information. This use of technology can be applied in the workforce, the educational system, and social life. Centuries ago, people did not have the means of technology that we have now. Alexander Graham Bell received the patent for his invention of the telephone in 1876. The first fully functioning computer was developed from 1936- 1938 by Konrad Zuse in his parent’s living room. The Internet has been developing since the 1950’s. Things are still being added to the Internet, the databases are surging with information. We live in a world where we are surrounded
Turning to the issues related to information handling, the definition of the information management should be mentioned. According to Hinton’s perspective (2006, p.57) the information management is “the conscious process of gathering information”. A brief overview of the presumable information sources in a high-technology company can help to outline the situation. T...