Purpose
This project provides an opportunity to apply the competencies gained in the lessons of this course to develop a risk management plan for a fictitious organization to replace its outdated plan.
Learning Objectives and Outcomes
You will gain an overall understanding of risk management, its importance, and critical processes required when developing a formal risk management plan for an organization.
Required Source Information and Tools
Web References: Links to Web references in this document and related materials are subject to change without prior notice. These links were last verified on April 19, 2015.
The following tools and resources that will be needed to complete this project:
Deliverables
As discussed in this course, risk management is an important process for all organizations. This is particularly true in information systems, which provides critical support for organizational missions. The heart of risk management is a formal risk management plan. The project activities described in this document allow you to fulfill the role of an employee participating in the risk management process in a specific business situation.
The project is structured as follows:
|
Project Part |
Deliverable |
|
Project Part 1 |
Task 1: Risk Management Plan |
|
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Task 2: Risk Assessment Plan |
|
|
Task 3: Risk Mitigation Plan |
|
Project Part 2 |
Task 1: Business Impact Analysis (BIA) Plan |
|
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Task 2: Business Continuity Plan (BCP) |
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Task 3: Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) |
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Task 4: Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) Plan |
|
Final Project |
Risk Management Plan Final Submission |
Submission Requirements
All project submissions should follow this format:
Format: Microsoft Word or compatible
Font: Arial, 10-point, double-space
Citation Style: Your school’s preferred style guide
Scenario
You are an information technology (IT) intern working for Health Network, Inc. (Health Network), a fictitious health services organization headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Health Network has over 600 employees throughout the organization and generates $500 million USD in annual revenue. The company has two additional locations in Portland, Oregon and Arlington, Virginia, which support a mix of corporate operations. Each corporate facility is located near a co-location data center, where production systems are located and managed by third-party data center hosting vendors.
Company Products
Health Network has three main products: HNetExchange, HNetPay, and HNetConnect.
HNetExchange is the primary source of revenue for the company. The service handles secure electronic medical messages that originate from its customers, such as large hospitals, which are then routed to receiving customers such as clinics.
HNetPay is a Web portal used by many of the company’s HNetExchange customers to support the management of secure payments and billing. The HNetPay Web portal, hosted at Health Network production sites, accepts various forms of payments and interacts with credit-card processing organizations much like a Web commerce shopping cart.
HNetConnect is an online directory that lists doctors, clinics, and other medical facilities to allow Health Network customers to find the right type of care at the right locations. It contains doctors’ personal information, work addresses, medical certifications, and types of services that the doctors and clinics offer. Doctors are given credentials and are able to update the information in their profile. Health Network customers, which are the hospitals and clinics, connect to all three of the company’s products using HTTPS connections. Doctors and potential patients are able to make payments and update their profiles using Internet-accessible HTTPS Web sites.
Information Technology Infrastructure Overview
Health Network operates in three production data centers that provide high availability across the company’s products. The data centers host about 1,000 production servers, and Health Network maintains 650 corporate laptops and company-issued mobile devices for its employees.
Threats Identified
Upon review of the current risk management plan, the following threats were identified:
Loss of company data due to hardware being removed from production systems
Loss of company information on lost or stolen company-owned assets, such as mobile devices and laptops
Loss of customers due to production outages caused by various events, such as natural disasters, change management, unstable software, and so on
Internet threats due to company products being accessible on the Internet
Insider threats
Changes in regulatory landscape that may impact operations
Management Request
Senior management at Health Network has determined that the existing risk management plan for the organization is out of date and a new risk management plan must be developed. Because of the importance of risk management to the organization, senior management is committed to and supportive of the project to develop a new plan. You have been assigned to develop this new plan.
Additional threats other than those described previously may be discovered when re-evaluating the current threat landscape during the risk assessment phase.
The budget for this project has not been defined due to senior management’s desire to react to any and all material risks that are identified within the new plan. Given the company’s annual revenue, reasonable expectations can be determined.
Project Part 1
Project Part 1 Task 1: Risk Management Plan
For the first part of the assigned project, you must create an initial draft of the final risk management plan. To do so, you must:
Develop and provide an introduction to the plan by explaining its purpose and importance.
Create an outline for the completed risk management plan.
Define the scope and boundaries of the plan.
Research and summarize compliance laws and regulations that pertain to the organization.
Identify the key roles and responsibilities of individuals and departments within the organization as they pertain to risk management.
Develop a proposed schedule for the risk management planning process.
Write an initial draft of the risk management plan as detailed in the instructions above. Your plan should be made using a standard word processor format compatible with Microsoft Word.
Evaluation Criteria and Rubrics
Did the student demonstrate an understanding of the competencies covered in the course thus far?
Did the student include all important components of a risk management plan in the outline?
Did the student demonstrate good research, reasoning, and decision-making skills in identifying key components and compliance laws and regulations?
Did the student create a professional, well-developed draft with proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation?
Project Part 1 Task 2: Risk Assessment Plan
After creating an initial draft of the risk management plan, the second part of the assigned project requires you to create a draft of the risk assessment (RA) plan. To do so, you must:
Develop an introduction to the plan explaining its purpose and importance.
Create an outline for the RA plan.
Define the scope and boundaries for the RA plan.
Research and summarize RA approaches.
Identify the key roles and responsibilities of individuals and departments within the organization as they pertain to risk assessment.
Develop a proposed schedule for the RA process.
Create a professional report detailing the information above as an initial draft of the RA plan.
Evaluation Criteria and Rubrics
Did the student demonstrate an understanding of the competencies covered in the course relating to risk assessments?
Did the student include all important components of a RA plan in the outline?
Did the student demonstrate good research, reasoning, and decision-making skills in identifying key components and methodologies?
Did the student create a professional, well-developed draft with proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation?
ProjectPart 1 Task 3: Risk Mitigation Plan
Senior management at Health Network allocated funds to support a risk mitigation plan, and have requested that the risk manager and team create a plan in response to the deliverables produced within the earlier phases of the project. The risk mitigation plan should address the identified threats described in the scenario for this project, as well as any new threats that may have been discovered during the risk assessment. You have been assigned to develop this new plan.
Evaluation Criteria and Rubrics
Did the student develop a high-quality risk mitigation plan based on material provided in the course?
Did the student use information obtained from the earlier parts of the project to build out a risk mitigation plan?
Did the student create a professional, well-developed draft with proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation?
Project Part 2
Project Part 2 Task 1: Business Impact Analysis (BIA) Plan
This part of the project is a continuation of Project Part 1 in which you prepared an RA plan and a risk mitigation plan for Health Network. Senior management at the company has decided to allocate funds for a business impact analysis (BIA). Because of the importance of risk management to the organization, senior management is committed to and supportive of performing a BIA. You have been assigned to develop the BIA plan.
Evaluation Criteria and Rubrics
Did the student complete a BIA plan based on inputs from the instructor regarding feedback on submitted work?
Did the student include the primary objectives of a BIA: identify critical business functions, identify critical resources, identify MAO and impact, and identify recovery objectives?
Did the student create a professional, well-developed report with proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation?
Project Part 2 Task 2: Business Continuity Plan (BCP)
After having reviewed and being impressed by your business impact analysis (BIA), senior management at Health Network has decided that your team must also develop a BCP. Management has allocated all funds for a BCP and your team has their full support, as well as permission to contact any of them directly for participation or inclusion in your BCP plan. You have been assigned to develop this new plan.
Winter storms on the East Coast have affected the ability of Health Network employees to reach the Arlington offices in a safe and timely manner. However, no BCP plan currently exists to address corporate operations. The Arlington office is the primary location for business units, such as Finance, Legal, and Customer Support. Some of the corporate systems, such as the payroll and accounting applications, are located only in the corporate offices. Each corporate location is able to access the other two, and remote virtual private network (VPN) exist between each Production data center and the corporate locations.
The corporate systems are not currently being backed up and should be addressed in the new plan. The BCP should also include some details regarding how the BCP will be tested.
You may refer to the following additional resources to help you and your team develop a BCP, and you may use a BCP template if found during your research.
References:
Guide to Business Continuity Management: Frequently Asked Questions (Protiviti, 2013),
http://www.protiviti.com/en-US/Documents/Resource-Guides/Guide-to-BCM-Third-Edition-Protiviti.pdf
Business Continuity Plan (Ready.gov), http://www.ready.gov/business/implementation/continuity
Evaluation Criteria and Rubrics
Did the student develop a BCP that could recover business operations while efforts are ongoing to restart pervious operations?
Did the student completely fill out a BCP template if found during their research?
Did the student completely understand BCP concepts presented in class?
Did the student develop a BCP test plan with correct processes?
Did the student create a professional, well-developed report with proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation?
ProjectPart 2 Task 3: Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)
Your project on risk management, the BIA, and the BCP have been well received by senior management at Health Network. They now want you to develop a DRP in order to overcome any mishaps that might occur in the future. You may research and use National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) templates to develop a DRP plan for the company.
Evaluation Criteria and Rubrics
Did the student develop a DRP that could recover business operations while efforts are ongoing to restart pervious operations?
Did the student completely fill out the template found in their research?
Did the student completely understand the DRP constructs presented in class?
Did the student create a professional, well-developed report with proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation?
Project Part 2 Task 4: Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) Plan
By now you should have developed an RA, a risk mitigation plan, and a BIA, BCP, and DRP.
In this part of the project, you will create a CIRT plan for Health Network. The company headquarters (HQ) handles all incidents because the information security organization is located in Minneapolis, so the plan will have its roots at HQ. Make sure to incorporate your instructor’s feedback on earlier submissions if applicable to the CIRT plan.
Evaluation Criteria and Rubrics
Did the student consider the inputs provided in their earlier submissions?
Did the student develop a sound CIRT plan?
Did the student create a professional, well-developed report with proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation?
Risk Management Plan Final Submission
After creating the CIRT plan, compile all project parts and submit to your instructor. Make sure to incorporate your instructor’s feedback on the previous submissions in the final risk management plan.
Evaluation Criteria and Rubrics
Did the student consider the inputs provided in their earlier submissions?
Did the student develop sound plans based on the requirements described during the project phases?
Did the student provide clear and easy-to-understand documentation, which may include tables and other presentation elements?
Did the student create a professional, well-developed report with proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation?
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