[2020] COMPSCI5077 Enterprise Cyber Security (M) - Question 3 Backup System
3. Perlman and Sammet is a British multinational retailer that specialises in clothing and food products. The company has been established for 150 years with more than 950 stores operating 24 hours a day. In the 1970s, Perlman and Sammet made considerable investment in a bespoke transaction system to manage customer transactions.
The company has 3 million visitors every 24 hours, 1 million of these visits conclude with a transaction and each transaction typically generates £10 of profit. The ageing transaction system has become the backbone of the company and is critical in the sale of goods. Nevertheless, the management team have become concerned about the dependency of the business on the transaction system.
a.
The management team have determined they can withstand a loss of £5 million profit from transactions, but major business units would be compromised after losses reach £20 million profit from failure of the transaction system. The management team believe the business would be irreparably damaged if the company could not process transactions after 72 hours. The technical support team state the transaction system could be restored within 36 hours from failure and so the business will not become irreparably damaged.
Discuss RPO, RTO and MTPOD in the given context and argue whether the statement from the technical support team is accurate.
(approximately 300 words)
[6]
b.
Perlman and Sammet currently rely on an ageing back-up tape-based system. The management team are considering replacing the system with a modern disk- based approach as it may reduce the time taken to restore valuable systems.
The technical support team argue that while a modern disk-based approach could replace the existing tape-based system, it would incur unforeseen costs. The technical support team argue several systems that interact with the back-up system would need to be replaced as a result and considerable staff training would also be required to utilise the new back-up system. The technical support team also argue little infrastructure investment is necessary as the current infrastructure supports a periodic back-up every 72 hours, that covers 12 hours of transactions.
Argue whether the position of the technical support team is accurate in the given context.
(approximately 300 words)
[6]
The management team are keen to rapidly expand use of the transaction system, specifically to consumers as to increase the number of profitable transactions. The system support team are concerned though that the ageing transaction system may not be able to cope with the additional demand and that in widening access to customers previously unknown security vulnerabilities may arise. The management team state they will provide resources and need to expand the system within a relatively short timeframe. The system support team argue that many aspects of the ageing systems, such as source code, cannot be updated as they lack software engineers with sufficient knowledge of the systems. The system support team also state that no alternative system is available, if the current ageing system was to collapse.
Appraise FOUR approaches to evolve legacy systems and argue for the optimal approach in the given context.
c.
(approximately 200 words)
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