Question 1

Avenue Eight Designs hired a consulting firm three months ago to redesign the information system used by the architects. The architects will be able to use state-of-the-art CAD programs to help designing the products. Further, they will able to store these design on a network server where they and other architects may be able to call them back up for future designs with similar components. The consulting firm has been instructed to develop the system without disrupting the architects. In fact, the top management believes that the best route is to develop the system and then to "introduce" it to the architects during training session. Management does not want the architects to spend precious billable hours guessing about the new system of putting work off until the new system is working. Thus, the consultants are operating in a back room under a shroud of secrecy.

Required:

a)Do you think that management is taking the best course of action for the announcement of the new system? Why?

b)Do you approve of the development process? Why?

Question 2

The internal audit department of a manufacturing company conducted a routine examination of the company's distributed computer facilities. The auditor's report was critical of the lack of coordination in the purchase of PC systems and software that individual department use. Several different hardware platforms, operating systems, spreadsheet packages, database systems, and networking applications were in use.

In response to the internal audit report, and without consulting with department users regarding their current and future system's needs, Mr John, the vice president of Information Services, issued a memorandum to all employees stating the following new policies:

1.The Micromanager Spreedsheet package has been selected to be the standard for the company, and all employees must switch to it within the month.

2.All future PC purchases must be Megasoft compatible.

3.All departments must convert to the Megasoft Entree database package.

4.The office of the vice president of Information Services must approve all new hardware and software purchases.

Several managers of other operating departments have complained about John's memorandum.

Required:

a)Regarding setting systems standards in a distributed processing environment, discuss factors pertinent to the following:

i.Computer hardware and software considerations.

ii.Control considerations.

b)Discuss the benefits of having standardized hardware and software distributed across departments in the firm.

c)Discuss the concerns that the memorandum is likely to create for distributed users in the company.

Question 3

Listed here are four scenarios. For each scenario, discuss the potential consequences and give a prevention technique.

a)A company has recently installed a new computer network. The operating philosophy adopted by the new network administrator was to establish an open system that would foster work group date to the network users. To accomplish this objective, the data administrator assigned employee access privileges to data based on department and functional affiliation rather than specific tasks.

b)Sara is a system programmer who was told she would be terminated in three weeks due to poor performance and was asked to conclude all of her projects during the three-week period. Two weeks later Sara created a logic bomb designed to get activated three months after her departure. Subsequently, the bomb destroyed hundreds of records in her previous employer's accounts receivable invoice file.

c)Matt discovered a new sensitivity analysis public-domain program on the Internet. He downloaded the software to his laptop at home, which he also used at his office when connecting to the company's network. The program contained a virus that spread to the company's mainframe.

d)Harry, a trusted employee and a system engineer, had access to both the network access control list and user passwords. The firm's competitor recently hired him for a large increase in salary. After leaving, Harry continued to browse through his old employer's data, such as price lists, customer lists, bids on jobs, and so on. He passed this information on to his new employer.

Question 4

The internal auditors of Tantacle Electrical Company report to the controller. Because of changes made in the past year to several of the transaction processing programs, the internal auditors created a new test data set. The external auditors requested that the old date set also be run. The internal auditors, embarrassed, explained that they overwrote the original test data set.

Required:

Outline any potential risks and determine the courses of action the external auditor should take.