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iPremier (A): Denial of Service Attack (Graphic Novel Version) Harvard Case Solution & Analysis

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The iPremier Company (A): Denial of Service Attack

About iPremier

iPremier was involved in e-commence retail business and was founded by two college students in 1996. It was the 2 nd largest retail business and the company enough cash in hand. In the last three years, sales were increasing by 20%. This company was included in those few organizations that survived business-to-consumer segment. It was composed of talented employees and experienced managers with compensation based on performance. iPremier had good governing values (See list in Figure-1) and was the pioneer in introducing new features.

Problem Statement

iPremier faced a Daniel of service attack (DoS) and it lasted for 75 minutes. It got resolved on its own and was not resolved by iPremier or Qdata. Due to DoS attacks, customers were not able to reach iPremier web page. Security plan of iPremier had been outdated and they had no plan to deal with that issue.

What is Daniel of Service?

Daniel of the service is an attack that restricts internet users to use services of a particular company. As a result of DoS, network performance goes down, website can’t be accessed and you get spam email.

iPremier Issues:

iPremier had many issues. They did not have updated security plan to deal with those kinds of attacks. Another issue was that they outsourced their technical architecture to Qdata, which did not have state of the art technology. iPremier was facing deficit in operating procedures. Employees of Qdata were not cooperating with iPremier when that attack happened. Employees who were working at night shift were not responsive. Qdata’s key employees were on vacation. iPremier could have better service provider but it was costly for them and this would have increased their expenses.

iPremier management was not able to detect the problem . They were worried about customer credit card information. They were not able to figure out anything and they could not make decision to contact police or FBI. Communication among employees was not centralized. One of their employee informed many other employees about that attack. Chief information officer wanted to keep it secret. There was a lack of formal reporting line.

iPremier Response

iPremier Response was not as good as it should have been. Some employees were giving suggestion to shut down the server. Some were willing to let things happen in order to know the impact of that attack. Management was not able to make any decision.

Recommendation

iPremier is supposed to take many important steps in order to deal with security issues. Following are the alternatives that iPremier can select to overcome the problem.

• 1.      Change Hosting Company

As it was mentioned in the case that Qdata did not have latest technology and because of this, it lost its market leader position. Qdata could not retain their experienced staff. That’s why their customer service was not up the mark. iPremier is suggested to find new service provider that must have latest technology, which could help companies to stop DoS attacks. Following are the advantage and disadvantages of choosing this option.

• iPremier will have a company that can give extra security.
• It will help to increase customer trust.
• It will reduce the chances of DoS attack in the future.

Disadvantages

• It will be costly for iPremier and expenses will increase.
• It will consume time when shifting to new servers.
• 2.      Make Strategic Alliance

iPremier can have strategic alliance with Qdata. iPremier has strong financial position. They can invest into Qdata to improve technology. Following are the advantages and disadvantages of choosing 2nd option.

• Service charges will decrease.
• iPremier will have decision making power in Qdata.
• iPremier will have to bear initial investment cost.
• 3.      Create New IT Firm

iPremier is suggested to form its own IT firm that will make sure that the security system is working correctly. Following are the advantages and disadvantages of choosing 3rd ........................

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Describes the IT security crisis, and raises issues of risk management, crisis preparation, crisis management , computer security, and public disclosure of security threats. "Hide by Robert D. Austin, Jeremy C. Short Source: HBS Premier Case Collection 32 pages. Publication Date: June 25, 2009. Prod. #: 609092-PDF-ENG

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iPremier and Denial Of Service Attack — Case Study

Arif Harbott

In a recent Information Management lecture we went through the case of iPremier ( read the full case ) which is a popular case study from Harvard Business School. It was a made up case but the recent high profile hacking stories ( such as Gawker ) show that companies are not taking security seriously.

The background is that iPremier suffered a DOS attack in the middle of the night which caused chaos in the company. After an hour the attack stopped and the company went back to business as normal. Two weeks later another DOS attack was spawned from the company’s server directed at a competitor which proved that their server had been compromised. The FBI became involved, the competitor threatened to sue and the city analysts were thinking of downgrading the stock.

Our role was to come up with recommendations as to how the processes and plans could be improved for the future. Keeping in mind that the security is about more than just technology we needed to brainstorm around people and processes as well.

1. People and processes

• Develop a business continuity plan (test it end to end including suppliers and keep it updated)
• Develop an IT governance framework that includes security in its remit
• Develop clear reporting lines
• Better training for emergencies
• Trust your technical leaders and make sure they have the resources to lead in a crisis
• Make security part of strategy
• Hire an independent audit team who report into the board
• Hire a security and risk expert
• Develop a better relationship with your hosting provider

2. Technology

• Avoid single points of failure. Separate the server stack so that database, web and file servers are not on the same network
• Use a reputable hosting provider with a world class infrastructure and support
• Make sure all your software is up to date
• Use a combination of hardware and or software firewalls
• Backup and redundancy planning and testing
• Active monitoring
• Strong one-way encryption of passwords
• Use open auth systems such as Facebook connect

I know there are lots and lots of other things you can do but this was the result of a very quick group collaboration.

Written by Arif Harbott

High growth CTO, investor and digital advisor who has launched and scaled both start-ups and also new businesses within global companies

Text to speech

Order my new book The HERO Transformation Playbook

Arif Harbott

CTO | Transformation | Angel Investor

iPremier and Denial Of Service Attack – Case Study

In a recent Information Management lecture we went through the case of iPremier ( read the full case ) which is a popular case study from Harvard Business School. It was a made up case but the recent high profile hacking stories ( such as Gawker ) show that companies are not taking security seriously.

The background is that iPremier suffered a DOS attack in the middle of the night which caused chaos in the company. After an hour the attack stopped and the company went back to business as normal. Two weeks later another DOS attack was spawned from the company’s server directed at a competitor which proved that their server had been compromised. The FBI became involved, the competitor threatened to sue and the city analysts were thinking of downgrading the stock.

Our role was to come up with recommendations as to how the processes and plans could be improved for the future. Keeping in mind that the security is about more than just technology we needed to brainstorm around people and processes as well.

1. People and processes

• Develop a business continuity plan (test it end to end including suppliers and keep it updated)
• Develop an IT governance framework that includes security in its remit
• Develop clear reporting lines
• Better training for emergencies
• Trust your technical leaders and make sure they have the resources to lead in a crisis
• Make security part of strategy
• Hire an independent audit team who report into the board
• Hire a security and risk expert
• Develop a better relationship with your hosting provider

2. Technology

• Avoid single points of failure. Separate the server stack so that database, web and file servers are not on the same network
• Use a reputable hosting provider with a world class infrastructure and support
• Make sure all your software is up to date
• Use a combination of hardware and or software firewalls
• Backup and redundancy planning and testing
• Active monitoring
• Strong one-way encryption of passwords
• Use open auth systems such as Facebook connect

I know there are lots and lots of other things you can do but this was the result of a very quick group collaboration.

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The iPremier Company (A): Distributed Denial of Service Attack

• Format: Print
• | Language: English
• | Pages: 13

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• The iPremier Company (A): Distributed Denial of Service Attack  By: Robert D. Austin, Larry Leibrock and Alan Murray

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THE iPREMIER COMPANY (A): Denial of Service Attack

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Related Papers

International Journal of Engineering Research and Technology (IJERT)

IJERT Journal

https://www.ijert.org/denial-of-service-attacks-tools-and-categories https://www.ijert.org/research/denial-of-service-attacks-tools-and-categories-IJERTV9IS030289.pdf DoS attacks cause severe damage to services available online. This kind of attacks try to prevent legitimate users from using their rights to online services by bringing down servers. Issues in Internet security provide the hackers with ways to attack network systems. These attacks can be performed using many tools and techniques. This paper gives an overview on DoS attacks categories and tools. Also, it defines the most known Dos attack incidents and explains the IP Spoofing.

Network Security–Current status and …

Aikaterini Mitrokotsa

Leonard wandera

https://www.ijert.org/distributed-denial-of-service-attack-at-application-and-transport-layers-and-precautions https://www.ijert.org/research/distributed-denial-of-service-attack-at-application-and-transport-layers-and-precautions-IJERTV2IS2462.pdf The frequency of Denial of Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial of Service attacks (DDoS) on the Internet are rapidly increasing. (DDoS) attack has the significant ability of concealing the traffic because it is very much like normal traffic. The Internet is part of the critical national infrastructure but is unique in that it has no customary borders to safeguard it from attacks. Network security becomes critical part in the internet world. Attacks that are seen everyday on the Internet include direct attacks, remote controlled attacks, reflective attacks, worms, and viruses. Specific attacks directed at a service provider's infrastructure can be very damaging and cause wide spread outages. In this paper we describe DDoS attacks in the application layer and transport layer of the OSI model and precautions to avoid the attack.

International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology

Hadeel S . Obaid

DoS attacks cause severe damage to services available online. This kind of attacks try to prevent legitimate users from using their rights to online services by bringing down servers. Issues in Internet security provide the hackers with ways to attack network systems. These attacks can be performed using many tools and techniques. This paper gives an overview on DoS attacks categories and tools. Also, it defines the most known Dos attack incidents and explains the IP Spoofing.

Michalis Masikos

We discuss distributed denial of service attacks in the Internet. We were motivated by the widely known February 2000 distributed attacks on Yahoo!, Amazon.com, CNN.com, and other major Web sites. A denial of service is characterized by an explicit attempt by an attacker to prevent legitimate users from using resources. An attacker may attempt to: "flood" a network and thus reduce a legitimate user's bandwidth, prevent access to a service, or disrupt service to a specific system or a user. We describe methods and techniques used in denial of service attacks, and we list possible defenses. In our study, we simulate a distributed denial of service attack using ns-2 network simulator. We examine how various queuing algorithms implemented in a network router perform during an attack, and whether legitimate users can obtain desired bandwidth. We find that under persistent denial of service attacks, class based queuing algorithms can guarantee bandwidth for certain classes ...

International Journal for Research in Applied Science and Engineering Technology IJRASET

IJRASET Publication

With the emergence of new technologies in this technological era the cyber world has also seen an increase in the number of attacks out of which the DDOS attack remains one of the most silent yet dangerous attack. DDOS attacks are carried by professionals who have the motivation of bringing down working systems, websites due to some personal or political agenda. This research paper is intended to highlight some ways in which a DDOS attack is detected and mitigated. We will also see how Machine Learning can be helpful in mitigating the DDOS attacks.

The Ijes The Ijes

Khaled Elleithy

John Palfrey

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Ipremier Case Study Answers

The essay sample on Ipremier Case Study Answers dwells on its problems, providing shortened but comprehensive overview of basic facts and arguments related to it. To read the essay, scroll down.

Introduction On January 12th. 2007 at 4:31am. Bob Turley. CIO of the iPremier Company. received a panicky phone call from his IT operations staff. Their external facing web site was “locked up” and could non be accessed by anyone. including their clients. iPremier is a web-based concern that generates gross through entirely treating on-line orders.

While the web waiter was down. the company could non accept any new orders or let their clients to see their merchandises. An inadequately third-party managed and configured router/firewall allowed hackers to put to death a DOS ( Denial of Service ) onslaught on iPremier. I recommend buying a new firewall solution that will be managed and configured by the Company’s IT staff internally. This degree of control will let the company to orient the degree of security they desire and give them the ability to extenuate menaces consequently.

Summary of Facts At 4:31am on January 12th. 2007. Bob Turley ( CIO of iPremier ) received a panicky call from Leon Ledbetter in operations. Leon stated that the Company’s web site was down and that clients could non entree the site. He besides stated electronic mails incorporating the phrase “ha ha” were being received by the mail waiter. The Company’s proficient operations squad leader. Joanne Ripley called Mr. Turley at 4:39am saying she could non entree their equipment from the line to their office and indicated she was driving toward the Qdata co-located installation.

Proficient in: Internet

“ Thank you so much for accepting my assignment the night before it was due. I look forward to working with you moving forward ”

She confirmed that Qdata ( their hosting company ) claims there was non a connectivity issue in or out of the edifice. Ripley stated the she would seek to re-start the web waiter once she reached the installation and confirmed she had an outdated transcript of exigency processs in her vehicle. Shortly after Mr. Turley hung up with Ripley he received a call from Warren Spangler. VP of concern development. Mr. Spangler was concerned with the affect on the Company’s stock monetary value. naming the constabulary or FBI. and basic PR issues ensuing from the incident. After Mr. Turley hung up with Spangler. he received a call from Ripley saying that Leon from operations notified Mr. Spangler of the incident. Turley so proceeded to name Tim Mandel. the Company’s CTO. Mandel advised Turley non to draw the Internet connexion so farther logging could be obtained. He besides disclosed advanced farinaceous logging would non be available due to infinite restraints from finance issues.

He besides received a call from Peter Stewart. the Company’s legal advocate. reding him to draw the stopper on the Internet connexion. Stewart advised that Jack Samuelson. the Company’s CEO. asked him to supply legal advice on the affair. Ripley besides called in and reported she could non entree the NOC due to knowledge and staffing issues at the Qdata installation. At this point Samuelson called Turley straight and advised that his chief concern was acquiring the Company back online and reiterated that Turley should non worry about any PR issues at this minute in clip. Shortly after. Ripley obtained entree to the hosted firewall and determined the closure was due to a SYN inundation type of DOS onslaught. A SYN inundation occurs when “external hosts attempt to overpower the waiter machine by directing a changeless watercourse of TCP connexion petitions. coercing the waiter to apportion resources for each new connexion until all resources are exhausted ( Lemon. 2002 ) .

Ripley attempted to barricade entree from the arising IP reference but rapidly learned that living dead machines were being used in the onslaught. rendering this attack useless. He hung up with Ripley so received another call from her at 5:46am saying that the onslaught all of a sudden stopped. Ripley confirmed the web site was back on-line and the concern was running every bit usual.

This DOS onslaught prevented iPremier from selling merchandises. and allowing clients position merchandises. on their web site. This is the exclusive presence of the concern. and when the web site is down. the company can non bring forth gross. All responsible parties and directors were rapidly involved and attempted to extenuate negative effects to the company. There appeared to be a little gulf between the legal and functional leading advice across the board. The web site was merely down for a small over an hr and iPremier provinces there was no significant impact to the concern at this clip. Problem and Options

This denial of service onslaught occurred due to inadequate firewall constellation and direction. This job was farther amplified by the fact that the firewall service was hosted by a third-party seller. Qdata. iPremier recognized staffing and general IT cognition and direction issues with Qdata in the past. but chose non to move upon their finds. iPremier did non hold any active monitoring of the firewall and merely knew there was a series concern runing issue merely when the web waiter was to the full unapproachable and unresponsive.

One solution is for iPremier to buy their ain firewall where they can use the proper constellation to forestall farther onslaughts. This degree of direction will besides supply them with advantages where they could to the full supervise the device and to setup dismaies bespeaking when there is a possible issue. iPremier will hold full control over the device leting them to custom-make the degree of security they desire. The drawback is the cognition necessary to adequately configure and keep the device.

Another solution is to go on their firewall service with Qdata after a complete audit was performed. Any failings in the security design would hold to be addressed and some type of warrant of service would hold to be put in authorship. I would besides urge that iPremier obtains some type of service degree understanding from Qdata to guarantee a prompt response clip during an incident. Some type of eventuality program must besides be put into topographic point leting them to instantly entree the device locally and remotely during a serious issue.

The advantage here is maintaining the current supplier which would non necessitate them to do any web or equipment alterations. The obvious disadvantage would be go oning service with a company who has already failed them in the past screening hapless credibleness.

A 3rd solution would be for iPremier to exchange to a firewall and security supplier who would supply a high degree of service for a fee they would experience comfy with. The same type of entree demands would be required during a serious issue to let iPremier entree when deemed necessary. “Shopping” around for a seller would let them to to a great extent research best in industry suppliers with a proved path record. The advantage here is obtaining a top-level service supplier with the right “know how” but finally iPremier would hold to reconfigure some equipment and do web alterations. Harmonizing to Allen. Gabbard. May. Hayes. & A ; Sledge ( 2003 ) . utilizing a managed service supplier is a feasible solution for administering security operations and duties where the organisation still owns the associated hazards. but allows sharing and extenuation of the hazards. Decision and Decision

Regardless of which solution iPremier chooses to implement. they must execute a full audit to bring out precisely what let this DOS onslaught to happen. We know the failing was in the firewall. but cognizing the root cause will let iPremier to utilize this calamity as a larning experience to construct upon in the hereafter. Joanne Ripley seems competent and willing to implement a “better” solution and I recommend prosecuting her in all treatments affecting this incident traveling frontward. Internal control of a firewall solution will let iPremier direction to acquire every bit involved as they want to be. The CTO and CIO could besides potentially pull studies from the device leting them to do future security planning determinations. Harmonizing to Applegate. Austin. & A ; Soule. ( 2009 ) . exchanging IT systems can go hard and dearly-won once it is ingrained into daily activities.

This facet of the security solution should decidedly be examined and taken into consideration. Allowing direction and IT staff to be involved in the Company’s security solution will assist maintain up security consciousness in the workplace every bit good. One individual may lose a possible menace that another staff member could acknowledge. Person as plugged in and competent as Ripley should merely be allowed to do alterations to the device. Staff should merely hold adequate entree to execute the necessary undertaking at manus. This would typically merely affect read-only entree to the security devices. iPremier conducts all of its concern through their web site and they can non afford for it to be down for any sum of clip. Mentions

Allen. J. . Gabbard. D. . May. C. . Hayes. E. . & A ; Sledge. C. ( 2003 ) . Outsourcing managed security services ( No. CMU/SEI-SIM-012 ) . CARNEGIE-MELLON UNIV PITTSBURGH PA SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INST.

Applegate. L. M. . Austin. R. D. . & A ; Soule. D. L. ( 2009 ) . Corporate information scheme and direction: Text and instances. Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Lemon. J. ( 2002. February ) . Defying SYN Flood DoS Attacks with a SYN Cache. In BSDCon ( Vol. 2002. pp. 89-97 ) .

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Scaling a business is the ultimate goal for most entrepreneurs, but how can you make it happen? First, it’s important to understand the difference between growth vs. scaling. Growing businesses focus on getting bigger and acquiring more customers and more team members. In comparison, scaling focuses on efficiency. Scalable companies can serve more customers without significantly more effort.

It’s near-impossible to scale a company by yourself, so you should ensure you have the right team in place. This isn’t just about bringing on more employees. It’s about finding those few, highly specialized employees who can help you move the company forward.

Research from McKinsey found that the highest performers are 800 times more productive than average employees in the same role. Focus on finding and keeping the right staff of people who believe in the company’s mission.

My company started with me. I worked as hard as I could and made some great progress in the beginning, but a business can only reach a certain level with only one person. It started with one hire, then two, then three. Before long, I was surrounded by amazingly talented people, and the business started to grow beyond what I was able to achieve on my own.

You also need to focus on understanding your customers and maintaining quality customer service. As companies start to scale, maintaining a high level of customer service becomes increasingly difficult. Ensure you’re meeting your customers’ needs by creating standard operating procedures, automating what you can and investing in 24/7 live chat.

Scaling your business requires investing in technology and systems, which aren’t cheap. Even if you don’t need the funds yet, start identifying potential banks or online lenders where you can access a loan or ongoing line of credit. Finding the right financing opportunities allows you to build the infrastructure necessary to scale.

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