Explain You Be the Judge as management of networks/people for storage of data for effectiveness of organization - Essay Example

IS Management Case Study: “You Be the Judge” Question Childs’ case is a complicated one because there are no clear lines of offence or defence. From the prosecutor’s side, Childs can be accused of computer tampering because of two issues. First, he had created backdoor passwords and these were not in line with his job description. Although Childs had disagreements with the non technical managers about how the network should be build and managed, he did not have the right to do all the things he did such as having exclusive privilege passwords to the network, downloading passwords and intercepting his supervisors words.

To make the situation worse, he also downloaded data from the network. Apart from that, when he was asked to produce the passwords, he was reluctant and kept them for ten days. This shows that Childs did not have the interest of the city (the owner of the data and network handling the data) in mind. As a result, Childs’ actions can only be described as criminal. Being a proficient information system professional, Childs understands the rules of data handling very well and must have known clearly that his actions were not only morally wrong but also illegal.

For instance, Childs must understand very clearly that storing private data from the network without the express written permission of the owners of the information was illegal as well as unethical (Dudley, Braman & Giovanni 25). In this regard, Childs must have known all along that what he was doing was illegal and criminal and should therefore face the law just like any other criminal. At this juncture, Childs may argue that he did what he had to do to protect the network from the ignorant non technical managers.

However, this argument should not stand because of one important issue, even in such a case, Childs must have known that this was careless because and negligent because making himself the only safe point for such a big data network, he was creating a single point of failure which is not only careless but also illegal. From the point of Childs’ lawyer, things can be seen in a different way. Childs actions were not illegal or criminal, neither were they immoral. This can be proven by Childs’ track record of integrity in his work.

Childs commitment to integrity was so much that his colleagues nicknamed him martyr because of his die-hard commitment to rules and regulation and he never bent to the non-technical managers’ pressure to bend the rules with regard to the development and management of the network. Apart from that, Childs was never found using or misusing the network or the data therein and therefore criminating his actions is not fair to him. His actions only depict a person who is passionate about his job and who would go to any length to make sure that everything with his work went well.

It is obvious that the senior management, who were obviously not conversant with the rules of network and data management, disagreed with him on a number of occasions due to his deep commitment to observe the rules. This could only mean two things; first, that the management are able and willing to do everything to get rid of him and two, that there is no way that Childs could be doing what he was doing with ill intentions. Question 2 Based on the facts provided in the case study, Childs can be seen as a single point of failure due to the fact that he is the only one who understands the designs and the configuration of the network.

The reason that Childs is a single point of failure for the network is not necessarily because he has the passwords but because he is the only one who understands the internal workings and configuration of the network. If he is not there and the network develops any problem, it would be very hard for the city to be able to deal with the situation because there would be nobody who would be able to understand its configuration. According to the information from the case study, Childs did not share any information about the design and the configuration of the network but chose to do everything by himself.

This is a basis and recipe for a single point of failure and must never be allowed. Every firm has the right to protect itself from this kind of a situation. However, doing so can only be done by having the proper information and data policies. To have this, two things must be achieved within an organisation. First, the organisation should have a competent IS/IT department which has complete autonomy on the data issues. Secondly every manager in the firm or organisation including the non-technical management must be trained on basics of information systems.

The IS/IT department must be mandated to develop strong and solid information and data policies which will also cover network infrastructure management policies. Work Cited Dudley, Alfreda., Braman, James., & Vincenti, Giovanni. Investigating Cyber Law and Cyber Ethics: Issues, Impacts and Practices. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference, 2011. Print