1. Unit 1 Fundamentals of IT
LO5 – Understand ethical and operational issues and threats to computer systems
5.2 – Operational Issues

2. Lesson Objectives
Understand about different operational issues including:
Security of Information
Health and Safety
Disaster Planning and Recovery
Organisation Policies (eg. Acceptable use policy, code of conduct)
Change Management
Scale of Change
Drivers (Changes in business practice, legislation, competition)
Needs (Improved networking, remote access for employees)

3. Operational Issues
These can cover a wide range of circumstances that could jeopardise individual departments or entire organisations.
Then next few slides will give you examples.

4. Security of information
It is important for an organisation to protect information from the following:
Loss
Corruption
Illegal duplication
Stolen
Manipulated
Hacked
Failure to do so could lead to poor publicity resulting in:
Loss of business
Bankruptcy
Fines
Court cases
Loss of production information and sales data can also leave a business unable to meet its requirements.

5. Health and Safety
It is important for organisations to protect employees, clients and visitors from potential dangers.
Failure to protect these people can reflect badly on the organisation if reported in the press.
It can also relate to large compensation claims, court cases, fines or even imprisonment (Obviously these are for more serious cases where there can be a loss of life).
There can also be an ethical or moral issue as risking the lives and health of employees through a careless attitude to their safety is unacceptable behaviour.

6. Health and Safety
Nowadays increased use of computers in the business world and at home means there are increase in physical dangers.
There are numerous risks which can occur due to using computers.
There are some regulations which give advice regarding all computer systems:
Tilting screens and anti-glare screens
Adjustable Chairs
Foot Supports
Frequent Eye Tests

7. Health and Safety Risk Examples
Health Risk
Ways of eliminating or minimizing risk
Back and Neck Problems/strain
Caused by sitting in front of the computer screen for long periods in the same position
Use fully adjustable chairs to give the correct posture
Use foot rests to reduce posture problems
Use screens that can be tilted to ensure the neck is at the right angle.
Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI)
Damage to fingers and wrists by continuous use of keyboard or repetitive clicking of mouse buttons for example.
Ensure correct posture is maintained (i.e. correct angle of arms to the keyboard and mouse for example)
Make proper use of a wrist rest when using a mouse or a keyboard
Take regular breaks (and do some exercise)
Make use of ergonomic keyboards
Use voice-activated software is the user is prone to problems using a mouse and keyboard
Eyestrain
Caused by staring at a computer screen too long or having incorrect lighting in the room.
Ensure that there is no screen flicker as this can lead to eye problems
Change to LCD screens where flicker is less of a problem than with CRT screens
Take regular breaks (and try focusing on a point that is some distance away)
Make sure of anti-glare screens if lighting in the room is incorrect or use window blinds to reduce sunlight reflecting from the screen
Users should have their eyes tested on a regular basis (middle vision glasses should be prescribed if the user has a persistent problem such as eye strain, dry eyes, headaches etc.)

8. Health Risk
Ways of eliminating or minimizing risk
Headaches
Caused by incorrect lighting, screen reflections, flickering screens etc.
Use an anti-glare screen or use window blinds to cut out reflections (incorrect lighting can cause squinting and lead to headaches)
Take regular breaks (and do some exercise)
Have your eyes tested regularly and use middle vision glasses if necessary
Ozone Irritation
Caused by laser printers in an office area (dry skin, respiratory problems etc.)
Proper ventilation should exist to remove the ozone gas as quickly as possible
Laser printers should be housed in a designated printer room
Change to other types of printer if necessary (e.g. inkjet printers)

9. Below are examples of safety issues
Below are examples of safety issues. These are different to health as it is more to with dangers that could cause serious injury or potentially loss of life.
Safety Risk
Ways of eliminating or minimizing risk
Electrocution
Use an RCB (residual Current Breaker)
Check insulation or wires regularly
Don’t allow drinks near computers
Check equipment on a regular basis
Trailing wires (trip hazard)
Use cable ducts to make the wires safe
Cover wires and/or have them neatly tucked away (under desks etc.)
Use wireless connections whenever possible, thus eliminating wires
Falling equipment causing injury
Use strong desks and tables to support heavy hardware
Use large desks and tables so that hardware isn’t too close to the edge where it can fall off.
Fire risk
Have a fully tested CO2/dry fire extinguisher nearby (not water extinguishers)
Don’t cover equipment vents (causing equipment to overheat)
Make sure that the electrics used in the hardware is fully maintained (i.e. portable appliance tested)
Ensure good ventilation in the room (stops hardware overheating)
Don’t overload sockets with too many items.
Change to low-voltage hardware wherever possible (e.g. replace CRT monitors with LCD ones)

10. Disaster Planning and Recovery
Organisations ake not of all the issues that could risk their assets, employees and existence.
A plan will be produced to either reduce the risk to the lowest possible level or provide alternative facilities or locations.
Examples:
Backing up data often as necessary ensures that minimal data is lost if there are computer failures.
Placing Copies of the backup data in different physical locations in case of fire, flood or earthquake.

11. Disaster Planning Three levels of risk:
Small – Network Crash, DDOS attack, Corrupted Hard Drive, hack or virus
Medium – Major hack, fire, corruption of backups
Large – Earthquake, disaster, continued attack
Backups – Most cases backups are as often as possible
In schools there is some legality behind this and there are normally 3 necessary backups – nightly, weekly and off site copy
The goal of disaster planning is to make sure that your company an resume operations shortly after a disaster occurs

12. Disaster Planning – Backup Types
Normal backups
also called a full backup (most basic type of backup), where all files in the backup selection are backed up — regardless of whether the archive bit has been set. As each file is backed up, its archive bit is reset, so backups that select files based on the archive bit setting won’t back up the files.
Copy backups
similar to a normal backup, except that the archive bit is not reset as each file is copied. As a result, backups don’t disrupt the cycle of other backups
Daily backups
backs up just those files that have been changed the same day that the backup is performed. A daily backup examines the modification date for each file to determine whether a file should be backed up. Daily backups don’t reset the archive bit.
Incremental backups
backs up only those files that you’ve modified since the last time you did a backup. A lot faster than full backups because your network users probably modify only a small portion of the files on the server in any given day.
Differential backups
A differential backup is similar to an incremental backup, except that it doesn’t reset the archive bit as files are backed up. As a result, each differential backup represents the difference between the last normal backup and the current state of the hard drive. To do a full restore from a differential backup, you first restore the last normal backup, and then you restore the most recent differential backup.

13. Organisational Policies
Organisations have policies to establish the rules for acceptable behaviour and guidelines for best practice in certain work-related situations.
Acceptable Use Policy – Stipulates what a person can and cannot do when using the network and/or internet while at work. Schools and Colleges require students to sign on of these before they are issued with a network login.
Code of Conduct – Sets out the standards of behaviour expected from employees while working on the premises or premises of their clients.
As organisations and technology develops these need to be frequently updated.

14. Change Drivers or Change Management
Change within IT is inevitable with the development of technology (better hardware/software). Some equipment can become obsolete.
Changes in IT infrastructure may arise reactively in response to problems or external requirements. This could include legislation changes, seeking to improve effectiveness and efficiency or initiatives
There can be processes and procedures for Change Management so that handling of changes can be done promptly or efficiently. It can also get the balance between the need for change or the possible harmful impact of change.
Changes need to be evaluated with benefits/risks with all impacts considered.
Prioritising changes is important to allocate limited resources to change that will benefit organisations and their needs.
Each change is tested and back-up plan is in place to restore in case of deployment failures
Possible changes: New legislation, new market entrants, new tech, company growth, staffing changes

15. Scale of Change This reflects the needs of the business Examples:
replacing a slow network with faster optical fibre system
Introducing extranet
Allowing customers to log into some systems externally
Providing access for employees so they can access work from home

16. Your Task You need to make a document which looks at:
Security of Information
Health and Safety
Disaster Planning and Recovery
Organisation Policies (eg. Acceptable use policy, code of conduct)
Change Management and Scale of Change
You need to explain:
What it is or what it means
What they include
Why it is important
Find examples and use these to explain different situations in organisations