Information Security and Project Management

                Project management will be an ongoing thing in business, with technology and other aspects. One of the main things that will need to be considered is information security. This week for class we were all asked to write a paper based on failed IT project management. While it doesn’t happen that often, it does happen. There were several different scenarios where failed IT had happened.

            I one, the U.S. Air Force had spent $1 billion over seven years to develop a single system to merge 240 separate systems. This Expeditionary Combat Support System was eventually stopped. The prime contractor was terminated from the project, after they had been given a stop work order the year prior, due to poor performance. Could this poor performance have led to a breach of information security? What information was contained in the 240 other systems they were trying to merge into this one system? Could that information have been breached?

            Another incident involved the Canadian government developing a new payroll system. When the payroll system was brought online it was a mess. People’s information was hacked, employees didn’t receive a paycheck for months, many of them having to sell their homes in order to get by. Was this project pushed too quickly with not much, if any, testing before it went fully online? Could the headaches have been prevented if there was thorough testing done ahead of time to make sure the system was ready to go? Were there higher ups sticking to a certain deadline for the system to go active? Was there a lack of communication about the potential problems if the system went active at that time?

            These are just a couple examples of IT failure in project management. Information security is critical to systems that are online and running, but it is also critical in project management to make sure these problems don’t occur while developing a new project.

Secure vs. Unsecure Wi-Fi Networks

Information Security should be one of the first things you think about when setting up or joining any kind of network. If you pay no attention to InfoSec, you greatly run the risk of information not being available to you when you need it. Or, you run the risk of people who don't have a need for the information getting hold of it.

Many people don't think about Wi-Fi networks being open or secured when they join them while traveling or outside of their home or place of work. It seems these days people, mainly younger people, are more worried about being able to post their selfies or status updates on Facebook or Instagram, or any of the other social networking applications out there. They are in such a rush to post these they don't even stop to think if they're doing it on a secure network or an open network.

If you are on an open network, you are potentially allowing others access to your device. Once they have access to your device there are many types of threats they could pose. They could collect data from your computer. They could insert malicious code in your device which could eventually render it useless. They could leave loopholes to gain later access to your device.  Some of these threats have far reaching consequences.

With many transactions taking place online these days, once someone has access to your device there are many things they could do. Many devices and operating systems ask if you want the device to save a password when you fill it in to go to a specific account’s website. If you are one who does save passwords on your device it won’t take long for someone to get into the password vault on your device. How many different accounts do you deal with online? What could happen if someone now has access to every one of those accounts? Many people also do online banking these days. What would happen if someone got into your bank accounts? There is potentially enough information on your device that someone could clean out your bank accounts, use your other accounts, or even steal your identity.

But there are steps you can take to lessen this risk. First, stay off open networks. Use only secure networks. If you must get on an open network, at least make sure it is one you have to sign into, like a Wi-Fi network provided by your internet company across a city. Make sure you have anti-virus software installed on your device and make sure it is up to date. You can set your device to automatically install updates. Or, if you are not comfortable with that, make sure you are manually checking for and installing updates weekly. When you are somewhere you think you need to log into a Wi-Fi network to do something, ask yourself what is saved or stored on your device, and what damage could be caused if someone got hold of that information.