IT/ Intro into LAN Technologies
Due:3/15/2015
The IST Department of XYZ Computers is located on the first floor. Payroll and all human resources records are processed daily and bi-weekly for 10,000 employees. After payroll is run, data is backed up using tapes. No firewall is in place, and e-mail is on the same server as payroll.
XYZ Computers is located in the southern part of the United States in an area that receives heavy rain. During the weekend, a major water pipe broke and flooded the first floor. The water caused extensive damage to the servers, which were also on the first floor. Create a disaster plan to prevent this sort of problem from happening in the future.
Proposed solution:
The way in which XYZ Computers has their IST Department set up currently is susceptible to many threats. The lack of a firewall is an open invitation for data to be stolen by prying eyes, and the vulnerability of placing the payroll database is in the same server as the email service. The geographic and weather conditions of the location of the company have a high risk of flooding, yet the Servers were installed on the first floor. Lastly, the backup method in place is sort of outdated and there is no mention on how often the backup takes place; additionally, the backup tapes themselves could be damaged, lost, or stolen. These recommendations are an attempt to improve XYZ Computer’s network data security, prevention of data loss, protection against network failure, and contingencies for natural disasters.
First and foremost, there has already been an incident where the network servers were damaged due to flooding in their physical location. It is then logical to start by redesigning the physical configuration of the servers, placing them on a higher level floor (assuming there are several floors to the XYZ Computer’s company building). Relocating the IST department should not be a lot of trouble, but will prove to be a valuable strategy to prevent network