Organizational Changes
SolarWinds should be able to develop strategies that would ensure they do not experience similar issues. Some of the changes that should be incorporated in the organization include network management software, which would allow the company to identify problems, create configurations on the network and devices remotely, ensure frequent updates to the critical network infrastructure devices, and evaluate the status of the devices and network. In this case, the company can detect threats and facilitate a timely response to security incidents (Elsayed et al., 2020). Consequently, it improves network performance, ensures compliance with data protection regulations, and empowers the company to manage its network and reduce potential risks proactively. In addition, the organization should consider identifying and reviewing all user-related applications to ensure they do not have excessive user privileges, which provides more access and control to an environment than it should. It is essential to minimize user privileges as applications with administrative access can automatically act under the system’s or user’s authority, which is the issue that executed the SolarWinds attack.
Ethical Guidelines
The company runs sensitive data, and personnel must understand the significance of ethical practices that ensure security and privacy. Defending the company’s data from malicious attacks requires a better understanding of ethical practices. Therefore, the organization should pursue advanced education and training to ensure they stay updated on the evolving cybercrimes. For instance, the company should educate the staff about understanding and practicing integrity, which ensures reliability, trustworthiness, and accuracy. As a result, employees will become more reliable with the operations and systems to reduce the chances of security breaches and maintain data privacy. Another key aspect that should be included in the changes to ensure the accomplishment of the ethical standards is encouraging professionalism.
Professionalism involves transparency about the type of data collected and also ensures that customers understand the information collected and how it would be used. Moreover, an ethical standard that is crucial for the employees to learn and enact is credibility, which ensures increased confidence from the clients. Credibility can be adapted by ensuring all tasks are accomplished with responsibility and accountability, which should be integrated into the company’s culture. The ethical standards can be integrated by conducting assessments and planning to ensure the staff understands the company’s existing assets and the potential impact of cybersecurity incidents (Macnish & Van der Ham, 2020). The assessments can be used to determine the areas where ethical considerations are lacking. In addition, creating awareness is essential as it allows the company to develop cybersecurity practices and shift them into the organizational culture. SolarWinds should also recommend that customers constantly update their platforms, isolate the company’s servers, and frequently change passwords for accounts with those servers.
Global Considerations
The international compliance standards that would have been relevant for this case include data protection laws, which require a business that processes or controls the personal data of customers to adhere to a range of data security obligations and afford customers a range of data protection rights. The law declares that any business that operates and controls processes that include personal data should abide by the data security obligations and provide customers with a range of data protection rights. Another compliance standard is the international service and product standards, which ensures that the country’s customers across the world have access to quality services, products, and systems that are consistent, safe, and reliable. Consequently, the company will be able to manage the procedures and deliver services that meet the customer’s needs and maintain efficiency.
The impact of the SolarWinds incident on the use of technology and communication in a global context includes damage to digital data as the hackers were focused on destroying data. Consequently, it was difficult for other countries to trust in the country’s technology, and the government’s data was also at stake. In addition, unlike incidents such as viruses, which cause a system breakdown, cyber-attacks contribute to destroyed networks and stolen data that affect an organization’s reputation in an international context. Securing and protecting data is a crucial aspect of technology, and communication and interference can cause financial losses for governments, individuals, and businesses.
The ISO global standards guide businesses in implementing and ensuring ethical and sustainable practices. For instance, the ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27002 outline a framework for developing, implementing, maintaining, and continually improving a company’s information security management system (International Organization for Standardization, 2024). Such global regulatory standards would ensure that SolarWinds demonstrates its commitment to cybersecurity. Moreover, the rule addresses issues over investor access to consistent, timely information that aligns with cybersecurity standards. Consequently, the company could validate a cybersecurity program internally and across third parties. Therefore, the standards created are essential as they allow businesses to better understand the requirements needed to protect the system and data against another incident.
References
Elsayed, M. S., Le-Khac, N. A., Dev, S., & Jurcut, A. D. (2020, August). Ddosnet: A deep-learning model for detecting network attacks. In 2020 IEEE 21st International Symposium on” A World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks”(WoWMoM) (pp. 391-396). IEEE.
International Organization for Standardization. (2024). ISO/IEC 27001 standard – Information security management systems. ISO. https://www.iso.org/standard/27001
Macnish, K., & Van der Ham, J. (2020). Ethics in cybersecurity research and practice. Technology in society, 63, 101382. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2020.101382
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