Assessment: Information Security and Privacy of Information

Privacy of information about customers, employees, suppliers and business partners is critical to information security which is the foundation of information systems reliability. Inevitably, large companies that retain information about customers and others have responsibility to protect privacy of their personal information. Relevant regulations, information security framework and privacy principles provide detailed guidelines about privacy of personal information. However, research unfolds enormous concerns about privacy of information. International Business Machines, popularly known as IBM, has a history of its development, growth and reputation. Recently, IBM became headlines of the media due to accusation of disregarding privacy of its foreign customers' personal information. The revelations of such privacy concerns have had significant impact on the financial results of IBM and business of other large US IT firms.

Required:

(i) Describe the concept and importance of privacy of personal information in accordance with the relevant information security framework, privacy principles and available literature. Refer to at least 3 journal articles.

(ii) Briefly describe the history, products and services of IBM.

(iii) Using your knowledge of information security and privacy of personal information as developed in (i) above, analyse in detail the privacy issues raised against IBM and their impact on the financial results of IBM and business of other large US IT firms. Refer to at least 6 media, web and journal articles.