Unified standards Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Unified standards - Essay Example System wide rules imply standards imposed across the entire enterprise. In view of the fact that the classical IS function has been decentralized to accommodate distributed systems, assess who should be in charge of developing and enforcing such broad standards.First of all, I want to mention that the unified standards are essential for any kind of information systems. Standards provide external interfaces for the distributed systems so they can connect to other information systems, perform data exchange and provide necessary feedback, for example in case of failure.As its website says, ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is the world's largest developer of standards. Although ISO's principal activity is the development of technical standards, ISO standards also have important economic and social repercussions. ISO standards make a positive difference, not just to engineers and manufacturers for whom they solve basic problems in production and distribution, but to so ciety as a whole.The International Standards which ISO develops are useful to industrial and business organizations of all types, to governments and other regulatory bodies, to trade officials, to conformity assessment professionals, to suppliers and customers of products and services in both public and private sectors, and, ultimately, to people in general in their roles as consumers and end users.ISO standards contribute to making the development, manufacturing and supply of products and services more efficient, safer and cleaner.... u (1998, para.3) writes in Netsurfer Focus, "The only safe computer is a dead computer." But of course there are some steps to protect data and computers of company's information system. As Yoo (n.d.) writes, all systems consist of three components, the software and hardware parts, the people, and the procedures. The same is true of computer and network systems. Securing computer system means security of the software and hardware, trustworthiness of the people who use and manage it, and reliability of the procedures for using and managing the system. In this issue, most companies are mainly focus on secure software and system management practices. But for complete evaluation of the security of networked system the other components should be considered. Firstly, employees of the company must be aware of the risk of sharing passwords or the use of simple dictionary-based passwords and of the implications of opening questionable programs or attachments in their e-mail that may contain extremely dangerous viruses. Secondly, level of risk should be evaluated. Network administrators are not security professionals, and therefore their primary mission is not establishing a secure network, but rather a functional one. What must be evaluated is how much risk is acceptable, and therefore what level of functionality will be sacrificed to ensure a reasonably secure network with an acceptable level of risk. Thirdly, information systems and networks must be designed and implemented to establish a strong foundation and architecture to incorporate security. The identification of access points into a network and establishing the appropriate access controls such as firewalls and monitoring solutions is necessary. Also, updating and patching software is essential to prevent known