Spring 2018 Residency Case StudyIntroduction The growth and explosion of the internet has led to a global market place. Companies can sell products all over the world and never have to leave the boun

Spring 2018 Residency Case Study

Introduction

The growth and explosion of the internet has led to a global market place.  Companies can sell products all over the world and never have to leave the bounds of their physically secure location.  With this move to a global economy we see an increase in security threats to organizations, individuals and agencies.  All these models must have an information system to process, store, and retrieve information for their internal stakeholders, customers, and external users.  Information systems have inherent risks and vulnerabilities to attacks from internal users, external customers, hackers and criminals.   Organizations must have a robust security program in place to meet these attacks and be proactive in their security stance.

Your group has the responsibility of creating a robust security policy that covers all the needs of the organization.   The security policy identifies administrative, physical, and technical controls that must be in place to identify security risks and develop mitigation strategies to minimize the effects of these risks.  You will evaluate the IT infrastructure of Indigo’s Equestrian Ventures and its global business model.

Organizational structure

Indigo’s Equestrian Ventures employees 500 people in five different locations throughout the domestic United States.  Indigo’s Equestrian Ventures generates $500 million in annual revenue through its business model so it would be a huge target for hackers or criminals.  The company’s business products can be purchased through an online web site.  They have one central database/data center located in Maryland and regional offices in California, Virginia, Florida, and Kentucky.  Customers, clients, and users have access via the Internet throughout the world.  The company has a disaster recovery site located in Scranton, PA.   Indigo’s Equestrian Ventures users can work remotely or within one of the regional offices.  They have a VPN connection that ensures that their connection is encrypted.  The central data center has a firewall and each regional office has a firewall to monitor traffic and keep unauthorized access from the facility.  They have company issued devices located within the office and laptops that can be taken for remote access.  All these devices are running Windows XP and their server is running Windows 2016. 

Objective

The goal of your group is to develop a plan that evaluates the current security posture of the organization of the company and what controls need to be put into place to safeguard their information.  You only have the brief synopsis for guidance so if something is not identified either it is not being done or they do not have enough information to provide you.  Use your text as the key source when determining what security controls need to be in place for your company.  Ensure that you cover each component that we have discussed within our class in order to increase the security posture of your organization.  If you have suggestions on how Indigo’s Equestrian Ventures can improve their network/telecommunications infrastructure to improve the security posture, you should describe and support/justify your recommendations.

Deliverables

7-page written paper (no more than 10).  Five scholarly sources besides your text.  The entire paper must be properly APA formatted with an APA running header, all references properly formatted, and cited within your writing. 

Minimum components that must be covered

1.     Introduction

Introduce your organization, security posture and business model

2.     Administrative controls

i.e., Backgrounding employee’s/training employees/any agreements

3.     Physical Controls

Physical protection of the facility

4.     Technical Controls

i.e., firewall, IDPS, encryption, etc. 

5.     Security Policies

What security policies will need to be built into your company’s overall existing security program to ensure that data is safeguarded. 

6.     Legislation/Regulations

How do legislation and regulations affect and govern your company.  Identify one federal legislative component and one regulation that could impact your company. 

7.     Network Security Tools

What tools are instrumental in monitoring, detecting, and alerting your company when an someone is trying to gain unauthorized access to your organizations network. 

8.     Conclusion