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Introduction
As businesses progress into the era of advanced technologies, digital transformation increases its strategic potential. Implementing information technologies such as information systems directly impacts the quality of business operations and customer experience. According to Rainer and Prince (2021), information systems “collect, process, store, analyze, and disseminate information for specific purposes” (p. 4). Although information systems improve operational efficiency and reduce costs, they do have certain shortcomings. For instance, the security of information systems might be impaired by malicious software, hackers, internal threats, and other vulnerabilities. To prepare for sudden breaches in security, business managers must be educated about these encroaching threats.
External Threats: Cybercrime, Hackers and Malware
Providing perfect security for information systems is a virtually impossible task, as threats to data safety are abundant and multifaceted. One such threat is malicious software. As defined by Or-Meir et al. (2020), malicious software, or malware, is “any script or binary code that performs some malicious activity” (p. 5). Malware comes in different forms, serves various goals, and causes distinct kinds of harm. For example, a type of malware that has grown its presence in recent years is ransomware, which blocks access to users’ data and threatens to erase it unless money is paid. In addition to the direct cost in the form of immediate payment, other expenses associated with ransomware include “recovering files from backup and restoring encrypted systems, business interruption, loss of reputation, lawsuits, loss of data, investments in additional cybersecurity software, additional staff training, and increased cyber insurance” (Rainer & Prince, 2021, p. 101). To prevent losses related to malware, organizations must consider employee training, data back-ups, and regular updates of protective software.
The topic of malicious software is closely connected to computer crime. Cybercrime is an activity associated with hackers which presents a severe issue for organizations as the threshold for hacking decreases continuously. Besides malware, hackers often implement such practices as doxing or identity theft. According to Rainer and Prince (2021), doxing involves accessing one’s data and threatening to publish it. This bears severe consequences for many organizations as users might lose trust and allegiance to their product due to substandard security. On the other hand, identity theft is a “deliberate assumption of another person’s identity, usually to gain access to his or her financial information or to frame him or her for a crime” (Rainer & Prince, 2021, p. 101). This practice is illegal and results in expensive and troublesome recovery of authentic data for users and organizations.
Internal Threats: Human Errors, Software Vulnerability and Poor Management
Factors that weaken information security are not exclusively external. In fact, internal threats present as much danger as hackers and malware do. Internal threats are constituted mainly by human errors and include such lack of personnel training, installment and initialization of non-secure systems, information leakage, physical theft, and others (Rainer & Prince, 2021). Software vulnerability is just as important to consider as internal physical dangers, like hardware malfunction, theft, or unauthorized access. Most commonly, software vulnerabilities result from human errors. For example, installation of insecure or outdated software might make information systems susceptible to known strategies of cyber-attacks. Rainer and Prince (2021) claim that “human errors or mistakes by employees pose a large problem as the result of laziness, carelessness, or a lack of awareness concerning information security” (p. 98). In short, human errors and lack of thoroughness related to information security manifest in different forms and present dangers comparable to intentional external intrusions.
Conclusion
In conclusion, integrating information systems has been shown to drastically improve businesses’ operational proficiency and cost efficiency. However, digitalization opens opportunities for malefactors to disrupt business internally and externally. While external threats are associated with different types of harmful software and hacking activities, internal threats encompass a wide range of issues, such as poor management and human errors. As these hazards might result in severe financial and reputational losses, organizations must address data security with all due diligence. Although perfect security is likely impossible to achieve, most of the aforementioned issues can be avoided if adequate safety measures are applied.
References
Rainer, R. K., & Prince, B. (2021). Introduction to information systems. John Wiley & Sons Or-Meir, O., Nissim, N., Elovici, Y., & Rokach, L. (2020). Dynamic malware analysis in the modern era—a state of the Art Survey. ACM Computing Surveys, 52(5), 1–48. Web.
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