Information system is a well organized system that helps to store, collect, communicate and organize any type of information or data. The data processing, manipulation, distribution, creation as well as filtration are easily done with information system (Laudon & Laudon, 2016). The main aim of an information system is to make each and every service or functionality easier within an organization. Moreover, information system is also responsible for making the organization completely technology oriented. Hence, information system can be termed as an important requirement in any organization.
The following essay will be outlining a brief discussion on the security and risk management of the most popular telecommunication organization of Australia, namely Telstra Corporation Ltd. The main objective of this essay is to know about the different types of information system controls, such as general management controls and application controls. Furthermore, the risk management techniques, audit plan and audit process for Telstra will be provided in this essay.
The largest as well as the most popular organization in Australia that mainly deals with all types of telecommunications and other communication services is called Telstra Corporation Ltd. Telstra mainly builds and operates several types of networks of telecommunication, proper internet accessibility, televisions, market voices, telephones, broadband services and many more (Telstra.com.au. 2018). The other several services of the telecommunication are also provided by Telstra Corporation Ltd. The telecommunication and the technological world are solely benefitted with the help of Telstra. As per a survey of 2017, this particular telecommunications organization gives about 17.6 million mobile services, 3.5 million services of broadband in fixed retail and even 5.1 million of fixed retail voice services in Australia and all the suburbs. Telstra Corporation Ltd has taken the decision in bringing out the most effective and efficient services for future generations (Telstra.com.au. 2018). The main aim of Telstra is to produce the best features of telecommunication services in future. Moreover, Telstra even gives information system services to all the staffs and workers, working in that company.
The proper use of all types of services and networks of telecommunications helps in making each and every functionality efficient and effective, with the core purpose to make the business of Telstra without problems and complexities (Bajdor & Grabara, 2014). All the business operations or processes become extremely easy with the proper implementation of information system. Moreover, the employees and clients of this company can easily execute the processes without even having proper acquaintance of technology. Telstra is known in every part of the world due to its unique and popular business processes. Each and every organizational service helps the company to keep their data or information absolutely private and confidential and thus is not lost at any time (Demir & Krajewski, 2013). This type of data integrity and data confidentiality is being maintained and restored with information system. The bulk amount of confidential data is easily stored with the help of information system in Telstra. The major benefit of information system in Telstra is the easy handling of data. Proper communication within the clients and organization is the second benefit. The customer relationship management is well maintained with proper communication in an organization. The service availability is the next important advantage of information system in Telstra. Since, this organization has customers throughout the world, time flexibility is required and this is possible with IS (Castronova, Goodall & Ercan, 2013). The customers can easily contact them without much hassle. The perfect reduction of various problems or cultural gaps is yet another advantage. Hence, information system is vital in Telstra Corporation Ltd.
General Management Controls are controls that help to gather as well as use significant information for evaluation of the organizational resource performance. The most important organizational resources are finances, physical and employees of that particular organization (Boonstra, 2013). The several strategies of the organization are taken by the higher management level and these strategies are responsible for accomplishing the several organizational objectives. GMCs or general management controls are the various methodologies of operations, which are useful for enabling the organizational bodies in completing their tasks with utmost efficiency. Moreover, GMCs help to complete the tasks as per planned by the management bodies. The implementation of strategies is also done easily with the help of general management controls (Tarhini, Arachchilage & Abbasi, 2015). The main advantage of the implementation of these general management controls is that these are extremely useful for reducing the various organizational risks or threats. These types of organizational risks or threats are extremely vulnerable for the growth of the organization and successful implementation of the organizational strategies. Moreover, the organizational management bodies often face major issues in forming the internal control systems and thus the company obtains significant support for stopping the threats and risks.
The GMCs of Telstra Corporation Ltd. mainly depends of three distinct factors (Li et al., 2014). The three factors are setting of several standards, measuring the total performance and finally taking appropriate actions against them. There are several important and significant general management controls for the organization of Telstra Corporation Ltd. The most important GMC of this organization is maintaining customer relationship management with the clients. Training is given to the employees of this organization. This type of training helps the employees to deal with all the information systems of Telstra. The third GMC of Telstra is that they follow a strict regulation and law compliances for maintaining law within their businesses (Dahlstrom, Walker & Dziuban, 2013). These general management controls are extremely important for the organization of Telstra Corporation Ltd.
Application controls can be defined as the security practices, which help to block any type of unauthorized applications from their successful execution. Various methodologies are present that help in checking the working procedure of each and every application or computer system (Eason, 2014). These methodologies are responsible for helping the several risks of data confidentiality or data integrity. The business processes are executed and controlled properly with the help of application controls. The application controls often involve proper identification, input controlling, authentication controlling, proper checking, authorization controlling, validity checking and forensic control. Telstra Corporation Ltd. has implemented these application controls for their each and every computerized application like online learning, payroll system and business application (Marchewka, 2014). Telstra Corporation Ltd. has implemented the following application controls:
i) Proper Identification of Authorized Users: The first AC is the proper recognition of all the authorized users.
ii) Input Controlling: The data integrity is solely maintained with the help of all the input controls.
iii) Authentication: The various application controls give the application system authentication mechanism (Kellermann & Jones, 2013).
iv) Authorization: Another significant application control of the Telstra Corporation Ltd. is ensuring proper access to all the application systems by only authorized and approved users.
v) Validity Checking: The fifth application control of the Telstra Corporation Ltd. is that it helps in ensuring the fact that only valid data is being processed.
vi) Forensic Controls: This type of application control helps in ensuring scientific appropriate data on the basis of inputs and outputs (Holtshouse, 2013).
The information system that needs both application controls and general management controls is being implemented within the organization of Telstra Corporation Ltd. The proper comparison between the application controls and general management controls within the information systems are as follows:
i) The application controls of the information system are absolutely different from general management controls (Bloom et al., 2014). Since, the application controls are responsible for controlling the applications and system, the general management controls are used for controlling the overall management of Telstra Corporation Ltd.
ii) The application controls within the information system of Telstra Corporation Ltd. could be referred to as the controls, which are solely related to the applications of computer software and even the individual transactions (Lloyd, 2017). There are several vital factors that enhance the application controls in the information system of Telstra Corporation. These are proper identification, input controlling, authentication controlling, proper checking, authorization controlling, validity checking and forensic control. However, this factor is not similar in GMC.
iii) The GMCs of Telstra that are related to the information system are termed as those policies, which are linked with the various organizational applications. All of these GMCs can be utilized to support the most important functionalities of application controls. This is done with the help of ensuring a continuous IS (Schwalbe, 2015). The most significant application areas of GMC are mainframes, end user environments and servers. These GMCs can easily control the operations of network and proper security access. Moreover, the data breaching could be eventually stopped with these controls. There are various safeguards that help to restrict the access to all types of authorized and authenticated data files and programs.
The following techniques are used by Telstra Corporation for managing risks and ensuring the reliability, security, integrity, availability and confidentiality.
i) Risk Avoidance: This technique helps Telstra to avoid the risks and hence the organizational risks are eradicated properly (Castronova, Goodall & Ercan, 2013).
ii) Prevention of Losses: The next technique helps Telstra by preventing the losses and hence maintaining reliability to a higher extent.
The risk assessment, control and identification are another three important risk factors for Telstra. The following techniques are used by Telstra Corporation for managing risks and thus the above mentioned factors are maintained.
i) Separation: This specific technique helps in ensuring whenever any kind of catastrophe occurs for business operation and hence risk is being controlled by Telstra Corporation Ltd (Laudon & Laudon, 2016).
ii) Reduction of Losses: The loss reduction helps this organization to reduce their losses and maintain risk control and assessment.
A proper survey to check whether the organizational resources are properly utilized is called auditing. This particular procedure is done to maintain confidentiality and integrity of the employees and information systems (Li et al., 2014). The misuse of organizational properties is easily caught with the help of auditing.
Telstra Corporation Ltd. does auditing of the information systems periodically. Audit plan and audit process are used in this organization properly to identify as well as analyze the quality of data or information system (Eason, 2014). The audit plan of Telstra is given below:
Conclusion and Recommendations
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that information system can be defined as the software, which helps in organizing as well as analyzing the data or information. Information system can easily turn raw data to relevant or useful information, which could be utilized for the purpose of decision making within an organization. The most significant examples of information system are enterprise resource planning system or ERP system and database management system or DBMS. Any popular organization, in today’s world is utilizing these two information systems for their businesses. The main components of an information system are hardware, software, databases, network and procedures. Data operation is done easily with the help of information system. Manual data entry or manual errors are reduced with IS. The above essay has discussed the IS security and risk management of Telstra Corporation Ltd. The general management controls and application controls are properly explained for this particular organization. Moreover, he detailed audit plan, audit processes and risk management techniques are provided here.
The most significant recommendation for this particular company of Telstra Corporation Ltd is that they should implement an information system in their business. This information system will be helpful for the company since they can easily manage or control the various business operations. Furthermore, time management will be another important advantage that they would enjoy from information system.
References
Bajdor, P., & Grabara, I. (2014). The Role of Information System Flows in Fulfilling Customers’ Individual Orders. Journal of Studies in Social Sciences, 7(2).
Bloom, N., Garicano, L., Sadun, R., & Van Reenen, J. (2014). The distinct effects of information technology and communication technology on firm organization. Management Science, 60(12), 2859-2885.
Boonstra, A. (2013). How do top managers support strategic information system projects and why do they sometimes withhold this support?. International Journal of Project Management, 31(4), 498-512.
Castronova, A. M., Goodall, J. L., & Ercan, M. B. (2013). Integrated modeling within a hydrologic information system: an OpenMI based approach. Environmental Modelling & Software, 39, 263-273.
Dahlstrom, E., Walker, J. D., & Dziuban, C. (2013). ECAR study of undergraduate students and information technology(p. 2013). 2013.
Demir, I., & Krajewski, W. F. (2013). Towards an integrated flood information system: centralized data access, analysis, and visualization. Environmental Modelling & Software, 50, 77-84.
Eason, K. D. (2014). Information technology and organisational change. CRC Press.
Holtshouse, D. K. (2013). Information technology for knowledge management. Springer Science & Business Media.
Kellermann, A. L., & Jones, S. S. (2013). What it will take to achieve the as-yet-unfulfilled promises of health information technology. Health affairs, 32(1), 63-68.
Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2016). Management information system. Pearson Education India.
Li, J., Li, Q., Liu, C., Khan, S. U., & Ghani, N. (2014). Community-based collaborative information system for emergency management. Computers & operations research, 42, 116-124.
Lloyd, I. (2017). Information technology law. Oxford University Press.
Marchewka, J. T. (2014). Information technology project management. John Wiley & Sons.
Schwalbe, K. (2015). Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Tarhini, A., Arachchilage, N. A. G., & Abbasi, M. S. (2015). A critical review of theories and models of technology adoption and acceptance in information system research. International Journal of Technology Diffusion (IJTD), 6(4), 58-77.
Telstra.com.au. (2018). Telstra – mobile phones, prepaid phones, broadband, internet, home phones, business phones. [online] Available at: https://www.telstra.com.au/ [Accessed 06 Aug. 2018].
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