Reference no: EM131302624

Create a Risk Assessment on SanGrafix, a video game design company. Risk Assessment can be as simple as noting an unlocked door or a password written on a note, or it can be a complex process requiring several team members and months to complete. A large enterprise environment probably has multiple locations, diverse activities, and a wide array of resources to evaluate. You don't need such a complex network; however, the main idea is to learn how to apply your knowledge in a methodical fashion to produce useful and accurate data. Approaching a task, such as risk assessment, without a strategy means repeating steps, wasting resources, and achieving mediocre results at best. Even worse, you might miss critical information.

Risk Assessment documentation templates are located within this section. (Use the distributed templates in these files: Case0201File01.doc, Case0201File02.doc, Case0201File03.doc, and Case0201File04.doc.) Make additional copies as needed. Please see the attached document for your assignment description. Students must complete each worksheet and follow instructions carefully, as each worksheet becomes part of the appendix in the students' final BCP.

The rubric for this assignment can be viewed when clicking on the assignment link.Risk Assessment documentation templates are located within this section. Make additional copies as needed. In a real risk analysis process, one of the first steps is meeting with all department managers, upper management, employee representatives, and workers in the production environment, human resources staff, and other staff members to get their input. Without input from the people actually doing the work, you might not think of essential factors. That isn't possible here, so direct any questions you have to the instructor, or do independent research to find your answers.

• First, identify the business processes that must continue for the organization to keep functioning-for example, collecting money from customers, receiving and process¬ing sales, developing new products, and so on. Document major business processes that drive SunGrafix, using the Business Process column of the Business Process Identification Worksheet. (You need your imagination and some common sense for this step.) Assign a priority level to each process (using the priority rankings in the following list).

Write down the department that performs the process, and leave the Assets Used column blank for now. Next, identify the organization's assets. Using the Asset Identification Worksheet that is provided in the Course Documents section on Blackboard, list each asset, its location, and approximate value, if known. (For multiple identical assets, describe the asset and list the quantity instead of listing each individual asset.) In organization-wide risk assessments, you would list all assets, including office furniture, industrial equipment, personnel, and other assets. For this project, stick to information technology assets, such as computers, servers, and net¬working equipment, etc. The information you enter depends on the network design you completed earlier.

All the equipment needed to build your network should be listed here as well as any cabling in the facility. (Assume the facility is already wired for a computer network with network drops available for each computer.) Hint: Remember to list items such as electricity and your Internet connection.Next, determine which assets support each business process. On your Business Pro¬cess Identification Worksheet, list the assets needed for each business process in the Assets Used column.

o Critical - Absolutely necessary for business operations to continue. Loss of a critical process halts business activities.

o Necessary - Contributes to smooth, efficient operations. Loss of a necessary process doesn't halt business operations but degrades working conditions, slows production, or contributes to errors.

o Desirable - Contributes to enhanced performance and productivity and helps create a more comfortable working environment, but loss of a desirable process doesn't halt or negatively affect operations.

• Next, determine which assets support each business process. On your Business Process Identification Worksheet, list the assets needed for each business process in the Assets Used column.

• Each process should be documented and have a priority assigned to it. Next, transfer the priority rankings to your Asset Identification Worksheet. Now you know which assets are the most critical to restore and warrant the most expense and effort to secure. You also have the documentation to back up your security actions for each item.

• The final step is assessing existing threats. The table below shows examples of ways to evaluate some types of threats and suggests ways to quantify them. On the Threat Identification and Assessment Worksheet, list each possible threat. Be sure to consider threats from geographic and physical factors, personnel, malicious attack or sabotage, and accidents. Also, examine the facility diagram you created for flaws in the facility layout or structure that could pose a threat, such as air-conditioning failure or loss of electrical service. Assess the probability of occurrence (POC) on a 1 to 10 scale, with 1 being the lowest and 10 the highest, and assign those ratings in the POC column for each threat.

Type of Threat How to Quantify

Severe rainstorm, tor¬nado, hurricane, earth¬quake, wilderness fire, or flood

Collect data on frequency, severity, and proximity to facilities. Evaluate the past quality and speed of local and regional emergency response systems to determine whether they helped minimize loss.

Train derailment, auto/ truck accident, toxic air pollution caused by accident, or plane crash Collect data on the proximity of railroads, highways, and airports to facilities. Evaluate the construction quality of transportation systems and the rate of serious accidents on each system.

Building explosion or fire

Collect data on the frequency and severity of past incidents. Evaluate local emergency response to determine its effectiveness.

Militant group attacking facilities, riot, or civil unrest

Collect data on the political stability of the region where facilities are located. Compile and evaluate a list of groups that might have specific political or social issues with the Organization.

Computer hack (external) or computer fraud (internal)

Examine data on the frequency and severity of past incidents. Evaluate the effectiveness of existing computer security measures.

• Next, using the Asset Identification Worksheet, determine which assets would be affected by each threat. List those assets in the Assets Affected column of the Threat Identification and Assessment Worksheet. For an electrical outage, for example, list all assets requiring electricity to operate; for a hardware failure, list all assets a hardware failure would disrupt, damage, or destroy

• In the Consequence column, enter the consequences of the threat occurring, using the following designations: Next, rate the severity of each threat in the Severity column, using the same designations as in the preceding list for consequences (C, S, M, or I). You derive these ratings by combining the probability of occurrence, the asset's priority ranking, and the potential consequences of a threat occurring. For example, if an asset has a Critical (C) priority ranking and a Catastrophic (C) consequence rating, it has a Catastrophic (C) severity rating. If you have mixed or contradictory ratings, you need to re-evaluate the asset and use common sense. A terrorist attack that destroys the facility and kills half the staff might have a probability of occurrence (POC) of only 1 (depending on your location), but if it happened, the consequences would definitely be catastrophic. Even so, because of the low POC, you wouldn't necessarily rank its severity as catastrophic.

o Catastrophic (C)-Total loss of business processes or functions for one week or more. Potential complete failure of business.

o Severe (S)-Business would be unable to continue functioning for 24 to 48 hours. Losses of revenue, damage to reputation or confidence, reduction of productivity, complete loss of critical data or systems.

o Moderate (M)-Business could continue after an interruption of no more than 4 hours. Some loss of productivity and damage or destruction of important informa-tion or systems.

o Insignificant (I)-Business could continue functioning without interruption. Some cost incurred for repairs or recovery. Minor equipment or facility damage. Minor productivity loss and little or no loss of important data.

• Finally, on the Threat Mitigation Worksheet, list assets that are ranked as the most critical and threatened with the highest severity. In the Mitigation Techniques col¬umn, list recommendations for mitigating threats to those assets. For example, to mitigate the threat of an electrical outage damaging a critical server, you might sug¬gest a high-end uninterruptible power supply (UPS).