International Information System Security of a Global

International Information System

Security of a Global Enterprise IT Network

Managing the security for an international network that supports key enterprise applications including marketing, sales, human resources, finance and administration across four continents must be coordinated with a strategic security information systems plan. The intent of this analysis is to show what some of the potential security threats are to managing a diverse IT network across diverse geographic locations, and what strategies or tools can be used to mitigate and even in some cases eliminate these threats altogether.

Analysis of Global IT Strategic Planning

There are a myriad of potential threats that could impact a global IT infrastructure, especially one distributed across four nations, supporting several key enterprise applications. The most common and potentially lethal threat is the network's perimeter is compromised through access of a corporate server at a firewall location. Hacking through authentication proxy servers has become commonplace with packet-impersonation devices and programs (Chang, Wang, 2011). This threat is beyond the scope of common phishing and individual productivity-based attacks. The approach taken with these strategic threats is to impersonate the packet on a company network down to the TCP/IP registration level so it is imperceptible to packet sniffing technologies and firewalls (Chang, Wang, 2011). This type of security threat can quickly infiltrate throughout an entire network, creating a platform for future access at any time. In conjunction with this treat is the evolving nature of packet redirection transaction-based workflows throughout an organization. This often occurs within Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems that have e-commerce front-ends or electronic storefronts that can easily be hacked and have specific codes embedded in their front-end applications (Gillies, 2011). The hacking of an ERP system will in turn provide access to catalog management, order management, pricing and services costing across a very wide spectrum of locations. Once an ERP system is hacked all global locations can be quickly accessed and data stolen or corrupted (Gillies, 2011). The third and most well-known type of threats occur in the areas of personal productivity applications and the use of phishing, identity theft and other areas of stealing login and password data to get access to corporate systems (Chang, Wang, 2011).

Strategies and Tools To Minimize Threats During System Implementation