Information Security Management Assignment-

Objectives

This assessment task can be undertaken in a group of up to 4 members or individually. Each student/group will analyse the given scenario of an organisation, and write a report. The report should discuss the guidelines for managing the information security risks of the organisation.

Assessment Task

You are required to analyse the scenario given on page 2 and produce a report that discusses the guidelines for managing the information security risks of the organisation. Your report should have the Executive Summary, Table of Contents, Introduction, Discussion (the guidelines), Assumptions and References sections.

Check the course website at least once a week for further information relating to this assessment task. Please ensure that you write your answers in your own words to avoid possible plagiarism and copyright violation. You can understand the Plagiarism Procedures by following the corresponding link in the CQ University Policies section of the Course Profile. Late assessments will be penalised as per the university policies and guidelines.

The Scenario for Information Security Management Assessment Tasks

Farmers for Farmers (3F) is a cooperative society of crop farmers in Queensland founded one year ago. Established to increase the yield of its member farmers and reduce the wastage due to rotting of crops, the society sells the crops to the customers at a lower price than that of the few giant supermarket chains in the state. 3F competes with these supermarket chains by directly supplying the produce from the farmers to the consumers without an intermediary. To this end, 3F has its own trucks, five distribution centres in the state and six distribution vehicles at each distribution centre.

3F operates from a small office in Rockhampton and the customers can place their orders using the web interface of 3F or over the phone. The orders are processed using a proprietary software algorithm of 3F. By using this software, 3F not only collect the optimum quantities of crops from the farmers and deliver them on time to the distribution centres, but also deliver the order to the customers in a minimum time. This whole process is automated with the help of on-board computers on the trucks as well as on the distribution vehicles connected to the office of 3F and the farmers.

This software algorithm is also used by the farmers to order and add fertilizer to their farmlands, to water the plants, spray pesticides and collect the yield in an optimum fashion while saving energy costs, resources and money. For this purpose, the algorithm collects real-time information from the farms, such as air and soil temperature, humidity, soil moisture content, information about pests, rain fall figures and the intensity of sunlight, without human intervention. The farmers also connect to the Internet via the network of 3F and post questions to the online forums. 3F also includes an online banking society that provides most of the banking facilities of other banks to its member farmers. 3F needs the guarantee that their proprietary algorithm, and various data and information in their information system are secured.

After the success in Queensland, 3F expanded its services this year to the New South Wales farmers and customers as well.

As the society was established last year, the information security policies have not yet been developed. The society is now in the process of developing a comprehensive set of information security policies for its information system.

3000 words

6 Harvard references.