Cybercrime And Information Systems Security

Cybercrime and Information Systems Security
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Cybercrime and Information Systems Security
Riordan Manufacturing is a multinational plastic manufacturer with more than 550 employees and projected annual earnings exceeding $46 million. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Riordan Manufacturing Industries, a Fortune 1000 enterprise with over $1 billion (Tavangaran, 2017). Its main offices are in San Jose, California, although the company has manufacturing facilities all over the globe. The company’s information systems help support manufacturing operations by providing important and timely data for decision-making at various levels of the organization’s hierarchy. They also automate and safeguard the sequencing of both production and business processes, over and above, aiding enterprise strategies. Riordan Manufacturing’s information systems include product design and engineering, product scheduling, quality control, production costing, facilities planning, as well as logistic and inventory subsystems. These manufacturing information subsystems have provided the company with many benefits such as reduced waste, re-work, and overall cost of production; accurate scheduling of production; effective management of suppliers; faster audit times; improved supply change management processes; and ability to embed lean and six sigma methods into the manufacturing process.
According to IBM’s Cyber Security Intelligence Index, the manufacturing industry is among the most frequently hacked industries besides highly regulated sectors such as healthcare, financial services, telecommunications, and government services. A real concern among manufacturing industry leaders is the ability of cybercriminals to steal intellectual property or insert ransomware into their information systems that could shut down production operations or result in the manufacturing of faulty products. One potential information attack that Riordan Manufacturing is susceptible to is supply chain attacks. This attack involves hackers using malware to gain access into the company’s database and stealing customer and supplier data and intellectual property rights of the various network companies. In manufacturing, several companies often rely on each other to achieve efficient operation. Therefore, if a malicious attacker gains access to Riordan Manufacturing’s information systems, they can cripple the company’s operations and those of its supply networks. Another potential information attack is ransomware: here, the hacker uses malicious software to secretly encrypt the company’s sensitive data, such as core process manufacturing documents or customer information. This type of attack usually results in disruption of manufacturing activities and subsequent economic losses.
Besides, the time and workload of detecting the virus and installing new security protocols may affect the abilit...