Techfite Case Study

Task Scenario (This is the ACTUAL scenario you MUST write your paper from)

Scenario:  Techfite is a medical technology company based in Houston, Texas near the Johnson Space Center.  Techfite works with NASA to manufacture medical devices specifically for the space program.  Due to the nature of their partnership security is a top priority for Techfite because the proprietary technology that is being created for NASA allows astronauts to work longer in a space environment.  The IT department at Techfite consists of 4 employees:

• Two entry-level specialists
• Senior security specialist
• IT security manager

Due to the nature of their involvement with government contracts Techfite is being pressured to comply with FISMA, using NIST as a security framework.  This is in large part due to fewer space missions being planned due to government budgets shrinking on a yearly basis.  Other restrictions have been observed by TechFite’s competitors concerning the handling of data across international boundaries, namely in the European Union.

TechFite is also looking to work with the space programs of other countries, such as the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, and JAXA, the Japanese space agency. The company is interested in collaborating with other institutions and companies to expand its business, which may result in opening subsidiaries in other locations domestically and overseas. This may force the company to store its information for longer periods of time, and more locations means more log data will need to be stored. 

Techfite currently employs a two-firewall system that provides protection for their organization in two areas:

• Outside firewall to protect Techfite and its partners
• Inner firewall to protect Techfite’s Intranet.

The two-firewall system creates a three-ring network where the innermost ring is the most secure and the outermost ring connects directly to the Internet. Each one of these firewalls creates a log of all the network traffic that passes through each of the firewalls. The TechFite CIO has notably raised concerns about current infrastructure security implications, but she wants her staff to propose inexpensive solutions to meet future demands.

Considerable traffic passes through these firewalls due to organizational desires to security collaborate with TechFite and the requirement government agencies have to access TechFite’s information.  TechFite administrators have been researching solutions currently available to meet the growing demands of secure collaboration, and all suggested resources fall outside of TechFite’s IT budget.  

Additionally, it is challenging to scan stored logs manually, so TechFite has been exploring open-source solutions to automate log correlation for both host-based and network appliances.  However, the amount of storage space to keep these logs for at least a year is more than TechFite has onsite. One of the system administrators suggested using technology to not only review the logs but also store the log files.  For reference, Techfite currently scans 10,000 logs manually per week with a 30% success rate in identifying intrusion signature patterns and has only 4 terabytes of storage allocated locally for log storage.

In addition to scanning the log data for potential attackers after systems have been compromised, the system administrators would like to be alerted by a new system that meets FISMA regulations when potential attacks are occurring on host and network systems. This means that real-time log scanning and behavior analysis of incoming network traffic will be needed to determine when a denial-of-service attack or advanced persistent threat is happening so the system administrators can catch the hackers. The system administrators also want to install honeypots to attract hackers, and the logs for those will also need to be stored even though these honeypots will not actually have real data on them. 

The system administrators will be busy keeping up with the technology they have, and they will not have time to research new technologies that might help them do their jobs better.

Task Solution (Rubric Points):

Propose an emerging technology solution that will benefit the organization in the case study. You will need to discuss the impacts of this technology within the context of the organization.  Write a response (e.g., proposal, letter) to the TechFite adoption plan proposal by doing the following (each section below should be a section in your paper in the template):

1. Summarize an organizational need in the case study, including the scope of the need.
   1. What is the organization asking for and why are the asking for it?  Summarize the case study and put what problem you are going to solve in the scenario for Techfite. Remember only solve for ONE problem (Log storage off site, log analysis and threat detection/notification, firewall/honeypots)
2. Propose an emerging technology solution to address the organizational need from the case study. Provide justification that classifies this technology as emerging. (Will this new technology solve the problem TechFite is currently experiencing?).  Remember you have to research and find an emerging technology as well as find a vendor that provides it. 
   1. You cannot just name the technology to solve the problem, you have to find a supporting vendor/provider for it. 
   1. You should also show examples of organizations that have used the proposed technology successfully to justify that the technology is emerging.
   1. Relate your technology to where it falls on Gartner Maturity Level for Technology or Gartner’s Hype Cycle.
      1. Note:  Your emerging technology must fall on one of the first two stages in the Gartner Maturity Level shown below which are embryonic or emerging.  Anything beyond these first two stages WILL NOT BE ACCEPTABLE and WILL NOT PASS Part B.

• If you don’t use the Gartner Maturity Level, you can use the Gartner Hype Cycle (shown below).  Anything within the first three zones is acceptable.  The first three zones as shown along the horizontal axis of this diagram include the innovation trigger, the peak of inflated expectations and the trough of disillusionment.  Nothing else will be accepted and would cause a fail to Requirement B.

• Also discuss what aspect of the technology makes it emerging tech?  Is it using machine language/artificial intelligence/other technology?
• Explain the steps of the adoption process that you recommend the organization use to integrate the new emerging technology, including a description of why each step is necessary and how each step relates to people or current processes in the organization.
  • Use the Gartner STREET process listing each step explaining how it is used in the adoption process(https://sites.google.com/site/aniketsaoblog/home/evaluating-emerging-technologies/street-process).
  • Make SURE you are relating each Gartner STREET step to Techfite, don’t just list out the steps.
• Describe a positive and a negative impact that your emerging technology solution could have on the people or current processes in the organization.
  • Provide a positive impact of the technology on the organization
  • Provide a potential negative impact of the technology on the organization
    • How could it potentially impact people and processes in the organization
    • Providing examples for how to address the negative impact so it is minimized
• Compare your emerging technology solution to an alternative technology solution, providing at least two advantages and two disadvantages that each technology may have for the organization.
  • Discuss the technology you chose and provide two advantages and disadvantages of using the chosen technology.
  • Discuss an alternative technology that wasn’t chosen and provide two advantages and disadvantages of using it in the organization.
• Recommend a method that can be used to determine whether adoption of the proposed emerging technology solution will be successful or unsuccessful, based on the needs of the organization. Assume that Techfite currently scans 10,000 log files manually per week with a 30% success rate in identifying intrusion signature patterns and only has 4 terabytes of storage allocated locally for log storage.(how are you going to determine if the technology is successful or a failure? What period of time are you going to test your technology?)  What steps are you going to take if it is a failure? What’s the fallback plan? 
  • Propose a time period to run the test (30, 60, 90 days, etc…)
  • What are you measuring during this time period to compare against the old methods?
  • What is considered a successful metric/number after the test is over?
  • The measure of the success of the implementation has to be QUANTIFIABLE…you can’t just say it’s a success because it works there has to be some measurable way of knowing it works through benchmark testing/metrics that can be read and compared to set metrics that the system must meet to be considered a success. 
  • Gartner STREET process is NOT a method of determining adoption success!!!
• Make sure sources are cited in paper and a reference page is at the end of the paper.  Have at least 2-3 sources.

Make sure your paper is professionally written…this is a proposal to a CEO/CIO, so you aren’t writing the paper from the perspective of a friend/colleague

Additional Tips:

1. If you use sources, include all in-text citations and references in APA format.
   1. Double spaced, Times New Roman, 12-point font.
   1. Use https://www.citationmachine.net/apa/cite-a-book to properly cite your sources
   1. Use https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_style_introduction.html  for proper guidance for APA formatting
   1. Example of an APA formatted paper: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/documents/APA%207%20Student%20Sample%20Paper.pdf
2. Remember a few things when you are writing this paper:
   1. Your technology solution has to have a vendor that provides it…you can name what emerging tech you will use but you’ll have to also name some entity that provides that technology for the solution. 
   1. Write this paper from the perspective you are presenting it to the CEO of the company who may not be technically literate.  Always write to the audience so it is understandable and clear to them what you are trying to convey.
   1. Your paper should have headings that show the subtopics for the solution, so the graders and course instructors know where to look when reading in the event it is returned for edits.  Suggested headings are below.
   1. You must have sources in paper and at the end of the paper in the reference section.
   1. There is no budget
3. Suggested headings (these are in the template)
   1. Case Study Summary/Organizational Need
   1. Emerging Technology Solution
   1. Adoption Process
   1. Technology Impact
   1. Technology Comparison
   1. Adoption Success

Common Reasons Task is Returned for Revisions or is Locked

1. Student ignores CI guidance/this document/template
2. Student writes the paper without reading the scenario
3. Student chooses a technology that is not emerging
4. Student lists the emerging technology solution, but does not properly identify how it is an emerging technology (does not list industry examples, where it falls on Gartner’s emerging technology matrix)
5. Student does not list the Gartner STREET process and relate it to TechFite for the adoption process section of the paper
6. Student does not properly use a quantifiable method to prove adoption success