This examination is worth 20 percent of your total grade. There are five semi open ended questions(worth 70 points) along with an
accompanying cyber security action plan template
(worth 30 points). You are
to answer each of the five questions and to complete the Cyber Security Action Plan template
based on best practices and your understanding of the case.
Please refer to the FAQ concerning the maximum
length answer for each question. You are to use references where appropriate
but are not required to use APA
formatting. For the open ended questions
you are to provide your answers immediately follow the question as follows:
1.
Describe…
Response
2.
Discuss…
Response
And so forth…
ABC
HEALTHCARE CASE BACKGROUND
Healthcare companies, like ABC Healthcare, that
operate as for-profit entities, are facing a multitude of challenges. The
regulatory environment is becoming more restrictive, viruses and worms are
growing more pervasive and damaging, and ABC Healthcare’s stakeholders are demanding
more flexible access to their systems.
The healthcare industry is experiencing
significant regulatory pressures that mandate prudent information security and
systems management practices.
Furthermore, the continued pressure to reduce
cost requires that management focus on streamlining operations, reducing
management overhead and minimizing human intervention. The regulatory focus at
ABC Healthcare is on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
and Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX). Both pieces of legislation highlight the need for
good systems administration and controls, but focus on different aspects of the
business. The main focus of HIPAA is to protect personally identifiable health
information while SOX is concerned with data that impacts financial reporting.
Violations may be met with both civil and criminal penalties. Therefore, the
company must be ever watchful of new threats to their systems, data, and
business operations.
The most prevalent security related threat to
on-going business operations is the continued development and propagation of
viruses and worms. Virus and worm prevention or containment is a vital
component to the overall risk mitigation strategy. Virus and worm outbreaks
have multiple cost aspects for the company including lost patient charges due
to system unavailability, lost productivity because of recovery efforts due to
infection, and potential regulatory impacts depending on the virus or worm
payload. However, the company must balance risk with opportunities in order to
serve the stakeholders and grow the business.
ABC Healthcare’s stakeholders include multiple
groups that depend on or need access to clinical and/or financial systems in
order to help support and grow the company. The access requirements and
associated risk model varies by user group. The main access groups are internal only users (i.e. nurses, hourly
employee, etc.), internal/remote users
(i.e. salaried employees, doctors, etc.), and businesspartners (i.e.
collection agencies, banks, etc.). Risk mitigation solutions must be developed
for each user group to help ensure that the company recognizes the benefit that
each group brings and to minimize the risk to business operations.
The high-level management goals of the network
design implementation are as follows:
·
Support
the business and balance security requirements without introducing significant overhead
and complexity;
·
Maintain
and enhance security without significantly increasing management overhead or
complexity;
·
Implement
systems that are industry supported (standards where appropriate), scalable,
and fault-tolerant;
·
Ensure
that the design is implemented to help ensure compliance with any and all applicable
regulations;
·
Proper
management of access control for legitimate users and malicious users is of the
utmost importance for the security of the ABC Healthcare management system. The
threat is not limited to outside malicious users but also legitimate users
engaged in illegitimate activity.
Based on the above
description you are to provide a recommendation of how you would address each
of the following ABC Healthcare’s computer network security requirements. Note,
whereas cost is typically an important factor, this is not a consideration for
this case analysis. Therefore, you do not
need to include cost estimates. Your solution should have the “right feel”,
despite the lack of depth or details necessary to be accepted by upper
management. Be specific in your
answers. Write them as if you were
writing a proposal to your boss. Since
you are developing a solution to a specific circumstance, material that is
copied from an outside source will not likely fit so everything should be in your own words.
Describe your technical
recommendation for addressing the security requirements in the overall
technical design of the ABC Healthcare network. This should include both
internal and external (untrusted and trusted) aspects. Untrusted would
include user connectivity to the Internet. The “trusted” network has the
main purpose of supporting the business functions of known entities (i.e.
partners, suppliers, etc.) which have a business relationship with the
company. Note that you are to concentrate on the physical and logical
level, including the type of hardware
and software, however you are not expected to provide specific
low level details in terms of equipment suppliers or model numbers, etc.
for your recommended design. (30
points)
Discuss the way you will address requirements for system monitoring,
logging, auditing, including complying with any legal regulations. (10
points)
Describe how the system will
identify and authenticate all the users who attempt to access ABC Healthcare
information resources. (10 points)
Discuss how the system shall recover from
attacks, failures, and accidents. (10 points)
Discuss how the system will address User Account
Management and related security improvements. (10 points)
Complete the Cyber Security Action Plan (see
attached spreadsheet) (30 points)
Solution: Help for Assignment
Solution: Help for Assignment