Risk Management For Emerging Trends & Technology In The Financial Industry

Aztek Corporation’s BYOD Project

Discuss about the Risk Management for Emerging Trends & Technology.

The advent of the information technology especially to each aspect of the human life as well as the business has been very obvious and there is no need to accentuate it more. The information technology continuous to be of great importance especially to the financial industry. It has been very important as well as a priceless resource (Afreen, 2014). This concept is no longer a news that the business now are in the information age which is characterized to the ever changing information technology revolution as well as the information superhighway on which every corporate organization should have, in the event it would survive in the 21^st Century. The financial industry has been affected radically by the aspect of the information technology development (Ullman, 2011). The aspect of IT has become an important aspect to the business resource since lack of it may lead to poor decisions and it ultimately could lead to the business failure. The financial industry has been impacted and the organization which are operating in this sector has implemented the use of the technology (Afreen, 2014). The information technology has offered the industry with the wherewithal in dealing with the challenges of the aspect of new economy poses. The information technology has been the cornerstone for the recent financial industry reforms which are aimed in increasing of the speed as well as the reliability for any of the financial operations as well as the initiative of strengthening the financial sector. The revolution of the information technology has set the stage for the unprecedented increase in the financial activity across the world. The progress in the technology development has reduced in the costs associated to the global funds transfers.  

Aztek is an organization which operate in the financial services in Australia and it is one of the leading in the provision of these services. The company currently has been facing a lot of competition and to achieve a competitive edge they intend to implement a project on BYOD to enable the workers bring their devices to the workplace (Willcocks, 2013). The project is intended to save a huge amount of income to the organization.

There would be a review of the various businesses that have allowed the workers to bring their devices at workplace. Moreover, the advantages as well as drawbacks that are faced in these organization. Additionally, the report will look at the effects of the application trends especially in the landscape of information technology. This project implementation will have both some positive remarks and shortcomings, therefore, discussing on the benefits that are associated to the adoption of the systems and drawbacks are important to highlight. This project also encounters the aspect of the security concern which has been captured as the project has been associated with many of the insecurity issues. The concept of risk assessment has been discussed and it elaborates on the various threats, consequences as well as the vulnerabilities which have resulted from the implementation of the project of Aztek organization. The report has explored on the recommendations which are aimed to prevent the organization from the issues of insecurity. There are also policies as well as procedures which have been applied in the agreement of employment to guide against the aspect of Bring Your Device applications.

Review of BYOD in relation to Financial Industry

In this research study, it would discuss on the aspects to consider on the project of BYOD in the workplace. Some of the devices which the organization would recommend them to bring to the workplace are the mobile phones, laptops as well as the tablets (Tokuyoshi, 2013). All the aspects which relates to the business will be looked at based on the trends of the business and how to adopt the project to leap huge benefits from it. There will be a review of the BYOD which will be highlighted for the financial industry (Astani, Ready & Tessema, 2013). There would also be establishment of the industrial regulation, the relevant government as well as the best guidelines which would be highlighted. This project under the research would be based to the current security exposure of the organization. There is also review of the risk assessment especially on the threats, vulnerabilities as well as the consequences that are adopted when it comes to control of the project on BYOD.  The research would also focus on the sector risk recommendations for this project which is underway to implementation. Other aspects which would be discussed are on the data security especially to Aztek organization (Astani, Ready & Tessema, 2013). This aspect is very important part to implementation of this project since there are issues of threats which will be exhibited when the employees are allowed to bring on their own devices to the place of work. Security is important especially in the flow of the data and who would have access to it (Caldwell, Zeltmann & Griffin, 2012). When this project is implemented Aztek Corporation will significantly improve on some of the areas which are lagging behind and it would also increase on the overall competitive advantage over the other organization in the same industry.

The broad framework of regulation is determined by Australian government. They have the responsibility to the day to day supervision of the financial organization as well as the market. Aztek Corporation being part of an industry in the financial sector they need to comply with certain financial conduct which are relevant to the protection of vital financial information. The organization needs to look deeply to the privacy Act 1993 before implementing BYOD to the workplace (Arregui, Maynard & Ahmad, 2016). They government has regulated some laws which could govern the financial institutions in view of the BYOD aspect. The government has highlighted that a business entity may which allow their employees to bring their own devices to the place of work. The laws has clearly highlighted some of the devices which should be brought are; mobile phone, tablets and laptops. Moreover, the Australian government has explained also that the business need to outline clearly on the rule which should be aimed at governing the workers in this aspect of BYOD in the workplace (Arregui, Maynard & Ahmad, 2016). Moreover, they should also make sure that these rules which they will implement should not be in collision to the freedom and the rights of the workers. In the event that the workers break the rules which have been established by the entity they should be fined and punished. Some of the rules which Aztek Company has established are based on these aspect; the workers should ensure that the data of the company is not accessible to the outsiders (Caldwell, Zeltmann & Griffin, 2012). Additionally, the information of the business should not be shared to any individuals who is not part of the company and there flow of the information should be within the business and the employees only no other third party unless it is stipulated by the business.

Government Regulation

In many institutions the aspect of Bring your own device (BYOD) is not supported because of the shortcoming it bring to the business. In some of the cases the incompetence’s as well as careless of the staffs has led to exposure of the vital information of the business to third parties or even to the public (Medudula, Sagar & Gandhi, 2016). The rival firms could use this useful information to highlight some of the opportunities of the organization and take advantage of the situation.

The BYOD concept is a vital aspect when it comes to achieving on the goals and the goals of the organization (Miller, Voas & Hurlburt, 2012). It may help in the reduction of the costs as the funds which would be used to buy new devices could be channeled towards other projects in the business. This project would rely bring forth benefits to the organization and this has been a trend which is taking the industry by storm (Arregui, Maynard & Ahmad, 2016). BYOD would help the business and it would likely help the workers to perform better, however, this project would be associated with some serious shortcoming IT risks.

Aztek Corporation has been an established financial corporation that has been offering financial services to the clients across Australia (Astani, Ready & Tessema, 2013). The organization has encountered various risks. Over the years the company has been concerned with the issue of ensuring the confidentiality with their data (Mphahlele, 2016). They are aiming at ensuring they establish objective which are more realistic to the project they want to implement which would be significant saving of a lot of income.

In the financial services industry there has been establishment of various regulation which have governed the functions of the organization that are in this sector (Jaumotte, Lall & Papageorgiou, 2013). The government of Australian has greatly encouraged and at the same time supported the businesses in adopting of the information technology in all their operations since it has been observed to reduce on the cost to the business (Caldwell, Zeltmann & Griffin, 2012). There is need of the business in financial industry in Australia to observe all the implemented policies in relation to the information technology in their new projects. The proposed project which Aztek organization is aiming to venture may not likely face any critics as other organization are also aiming to implement on the same to be able to reduce on some of the shortcoming such as increased cost of purchasing resources.

Benefits and Drawbacks of BYOD

BYOD in the workplace would likely have some negative impact to the organization as their data would be exposed and it would be viewed by public individuals or organization (Caldwell, Zeltmann & Griffin, 2012). Some of the notorious employees may carry data from the organization which could be accessed by their families or even relative if they are not kept safe. The confidentiality of the organization of the business is important and therefore, there is need to keep it safe.

Aztek organization has been able to manage to all their applications of IT along with the resources (Thomson, 2012). This clearly shows its security posture which are within their own business aspects. There is no individual who can gain access to the data of the organization unless they are connected within the network of the corporation (Mansfield-Devine, 2012). The network of the organization has been managed by the IT professionals who are employed by this business entity (Caldwell, Zeltmann & Griffin, 2012). There is use of the access management systems which have been implemented to secure their system. They are able to monitor as well as change on any framework within the system to suit their business needs (French, Guo & Shim, 2014). The organization security posture which has been utilized in Aztek Company could have some risks concerns but the organization ensures there is security of the data (Astani, Ready & Tessema, 2013). Aztek Company aims at implement the project on BYOD to the workplace, employees need to use these device in performing their duties. Based on the research more than seventy two percent of the organization support the BYOD but the threat of the data leakage has been more prevalent than ever before, as the workers look at the access of the corporate sensitive information on their mobile devices when they are outside the organization network.

The sole responsibility in relation to the data security should be shared amongst the providers and the organization. When the data of the organization has been exposed by the employees to the public it could lead to devastating effects (Astani, Ready & Tessema, 2013). The organization could be sued by the customers and get fined heavily especially when the information about the customers have been breached. The financial institution in most of the time deals with data which is sensitive and when it is exposed by the employees there are adverse effect of that company (Caldwell, Zeltmann & Griffin, 2012). There is need to educate the employees on how to keep the information safe. The data of Aztek Company should only be accessed and shared within the business. When using their own devices in the workplace there could be encrypted and passwords so that they are only accessed by individuals who have authentication (Song, 2014). The employees should not access this information when they leave place of work, and any information which is accessed while they are home, it is a breach of the policies of the organization and they could be charged when they are known (Eslahi, Naseri, Hashim, Tahir & Saad, 2014). Deleting this information when leaving place of work would be one of step which could be utilized.

Effects of Technology Trends

This concept refers to the policy of permitting the workers to bring their own devices such as the laptops, tablets and the smartphones to their place of work, and utilize those devices in accessing the privileged information and applications of the company (Fincham, Fleck, Procter, Scarbrough, Tierney & Williams, 1995). This phenomenon has been referred to as the information technology consumerisation. This concept has been making significant inroads especially to the business world, with about seventy five workers in high growth markets (Caldwell, Zeltmann & Griffin, 2012). Aztek organization adopting the BYOD concept will be implemented by information technology department within the business. In this project there would be selection of the application which are useful to implement and manage the devices which these staff bring to the workplace (Astani, Ready & Tessema, 2013). The expert should establish a network connection which would be utilized by the workers to enable them perform on their duties using their devices. There are few organization which have adequate control measures in regards to the risk associated with the adoption of this concept (Schwalbe, 2015). Aztek corporation need to establish guideline which will govern the staff on how to use their devices while working in the organization.

In most of the organization today they have implemented policies in relation to protecting the organization data and incorporating the concept of BYOD (Kulkarni, Shelke, Palwe, Solanke, Belsare & Mohite, 2014). In the event that an employee connect their devices to the network of the organization, the data is at risk if appropriate mechanism are not in place to address the confidentiality of the data (Caldwell, Zeltmann & Griffin, 2012). Some of those devices at times do not have an updated software or perhaps they have a malicious software installed on them and the owners are not aware. Once these devices are connected they may infect the system in the organization which could compromise on the data and in some instances leads to data loss.

Increase productivity: There is increased flexibility as well as productivity. When the workers are granted access to the corporation data base as well as allowing them to use their own devices to streamline on their work it would increase on the work volume they are undertaking (Sangani, 2013).

Increase on the satisfaction of the workers: When a business permit the workers to use their own devices at the place of work, they tend to enjoy more (Caldwell, Zeltmann & Griffin, 2012). They would invest additional time to explore as well as understand their devices which is relation to their duties.

Risk Assessment

Cost saving: It has been observed that organization could spend less on the software as well as the hardware. This responsibility tends to be transferred to the employees who take it up as they view it is a benefit on their end (Vorakulpipat, Polprasert & Siwamogsatham, 2014).

Cutting edge technology:  This is a benefit of BYOD in the organization since it tends to increase the access to the cutting edge technology (King, 2016). The workers tend to upgrade to the latest devices, as well as accompanying software platforms much faster than the organization.

Security: This is one of the greatest concern when it comes to using of the personal devices especially in the work environment (Morrow, 2012). The security fears are in most of the times arising around the data, since it will be Aztek asset which would be at risk (King, 2016). When there is insufficient security particularly to the owned devices could lead to exposure of the sensitive data of the organization to manipulation practices.

Privacy issues: The BYOD usually blur the line between the workers liability as well as the organizational liability (Scarfo, 2012). This practice may raise various challenges when it comes to IT department as a result of increased need for the consideration especially in the intrusion of the privacy.

The copyrights issues: This could arise especially when it comes to the ownerships of any creations for example the inventions which have been created as well accessed through the devices of the employee.

This concept of the BYOD has been associated with the aspects of threats, vulnerabilities as well as consequences which are the challenges (Disterer & Kleiner, 2013). There is need to carry out a risk assessment to be able to identify those risk and vulnerabilities to enable the organization to mitigate them. In this assessment it will identify on the threat, vulnerability, as well as the consequence.

Management of the unknown third party access to the mobile application: many of the workers when they install free application in their devices to use and when they utilize then for the official duties, there could arise a situation of access by the 3^rd party especially if they are not secure hence they can access the sensitive data. This risk may not impact on Aztek organization. In this risk it is rated as low since the organization has been able to implement mechanism to handle on the issue.

Recommendations

Probable challenge of the management of data and the compliance: Many of the businesses ensures that their security is intact especially that of the data. They ensures that both their cloud based as well as storage hardware devices are secure. Aztec organization due to the nature of their business usually deals with data that is very sensitive particularly the one containing the information of the clients. Further, the organization has been able to employ mechanism to prevent such information from being access by unauthorized individuals.

Probable challenge of the management of the data and compliance:  Aztek organization would likely encounter various challenges especially to the implementation of the data administration along with the support to compliance. The organization intends clearly outline on the compliance aspects in relation to the third party applications.

Data leakage as a result of loss of the employee’s devices:  many of the devices which are used by the employees in the workplace do not have a password which is installed in them. In the event that they get loss, there could be devastating repercussion to the organization if the information get accessed by another person. To ensure this the organization has urged the employees to input passwords as well as the data they access is encrypted.

This will be represented in a table format to highlight the level of the threat, consequence and how to mitigate on the above raised risk issue.

Threats	Level of threat	Vulnerabilities	Consequences	How to mitigate(controls)
1.      Risk of management of the unknown third party access to mobile applications: The risk does not affect Aztek Corporation, and is rated low as they have mechanism in place.	low	This can occur in the event that the employees do not undertake their tasks appropriately.	This project could fail	Blacklist or failure of installing the software which is risky or unregistered license. Monitoring of BYOD policy.
2.      Unable to track the corporate data: leads to exposure of the data to public.	medium	Using of the organization data inappropriately.	Failure of the entire project which could lead to the closure of the organization.	Implementation of mechanisms to prevent the exposure and to track down the information which is accessed by users.
3.      Failure of management of data and compliance.	low	The employees do not observe current rules and regulations that are established.	The organization may not utilize the project to achieve their goals.	Formulation of the policy documents which contains the policies which govern them on the project of BYOD.
4.      Data leak caused by the loss of the devices for workers.	medium	Exposure of the confidential information of the organization.	Loss of clients and image of the company. Poor performance of the employees as their tools they use to carry out their duties are lost and all their information is lost (Raths, 2012).	Ensuring the data is encrypted. The devices used by employees have passwords and programs to keep the data secure.

Aztek organization have been entrusted by the client with sensitive information which should not be exposed to the third parties.  In this project which they intend to adopt the data may be exposed to the users who are not authorized in the event they do not implement proper mechanism to keep it secure (King, 2016). Aztek organization has been dealing with the information which is sensitive in nature and it should not be disclosed to the public at any particular instance (Afreen, 2014). The project which the organization adopted is based on the BYOD to the workplace which could lead the data to be exposed to the unauthorized individual in the event they do not implement it well. The organization need to formulate some regulations and guidelines that could govern them when it comes to the implementation of such project. The organization should be in a position to manage this project through their tech individuals who are deployed when the implementation process is initiated (Afreen, 2014). The organization need to monitor on who has the access to the data, as well as how it flows. This is to curb some employees who are very careless since they could mishandle it or even give an access to the unauthorized parties. There is need to address the risks which have been identified above appropriately. 

Risk	How to mitigate them.
1.      Management of the unknown third party access to mobile applications:	Blacklist or failure of installing the software which is risky or unregistered license. Monitoring of BYOD policy
2.      Probable challenge in the tracking of the data.	Implementation of mechanisms to prevent the exposure and to track down the information which is accessed by users.
3.      Probable challenge of management of data and compliance	Formulation of the policy documents which contains the policies which govern them on the project of BYOD.
4.      Data leakage as a result of loss of the employee’s devices.	Encryption of the data and password programs to prevent access of the data and keep it secure.

Data Security for Aztek

The Aztek organization should be able to establish a clear guidelines in regards to the aspect of BYOD to the workplace. On their guideline policy document it should pertains on the standards which the employees should act upon when they bring their devices in the workplace. This should also be incorporated in the employment agreement to curb those employees who would want to link the information for their own personal gain. Moreover, the organization should train the employees on this project bring forth the benefits it would bring to both the business and the employees.

Conclusion:

The technology has had a major impact towards the delivery of the financial services especially to the Aztek organization. Aztek organization is planning to implement the project of BYOD in the workplace especially the mobile devices such as mobile devices, tablets along with the laptop. This provide is expected to bring many benefits to the organization, but it is also likely to bring IT risks. One of the major risk which has been identified in the research is data security during the implementation process of the project. To be able to mitigate on this issue would be formulation of regulation that can govern in the implementation of this project. Once the issues relating to the data security are resolved the project will bring many benefits to both the organization and the employees.

References 

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