IT as a competitive advantage

Identify and briefly describe five specific areas in which IT may support or promote a company's competitive advantage.

role of information technology in giving a company a competitive advantage

-through analyzing financial data, data keeping and accounting and marketing

-modern manufacturing procedures such as computer numerical control

-enhancing product performance such as machines acting like robots with interactive display and audio eg car dash boards. Washing machines are customizable to various cloth materials for maximum effeciency

-transforming a product and its value chain through use of bar code readers to acess more info on a product and getting feedback for its genuinity online, easy to get feedback

-advertising cheaply lowering production costs through efficient data analysis and modern manufacturing procedures.

• Identify and briefly describe five specific areas where IT represents a risk to a company's competitive advantage.

-huge investment is required in acquiring and maintaining state of the art softwares and hardwares that act as barrier to under capitalized ventures.

-internet security compromised and has resulted in money laundering  eg in banking where money can be transferred online from a clients account to an anonymous account illegally.

-employee monitoring software demoralize them leading to low output as they feel mistrust between them and their employer

-its easy to steal corporate information and sell it to a competitor since the technology pace is easily outweighing the existsiong security measures.

-it professional staff are highly competed for in the given market niches raising competition among companies to retain them.

“Late 2013, Vodafone Germany confirmed that an attacker with insider knowledge had stolen the personal data of two million of its customers from a server located in Germany. Customer name and address and date-of-birth information and some bank account details were taken. In this case Vodafone identified the perpetrator as an insider with knowledge of its most sensitive internal systems. Vodafone claims to have up-to-date and well maintained security systems, but still fell victim to what the company described as “a highly complex attack that was conducted with inside knowledge of its most secure internal systems,” said the report by Andrew Kellett, principal analyst software – IT Solutions,  at Ovum.
He wrote that only nine percent of organizations felt safe from attack, while more than a quarter felt vulnerable, and nearly half thought that insider threats are more difficult to detect today than they were in 2012.
“Organizations remain vulnerable and need to do more to deal with insider threats that range from misuse of resources to targeted and malicious APT threats … what is missing is an integrated platform approach to user and data protection.”

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The top issues raised (49 percent of respondents) were about how best to keep tabs on and control users who have legitimate access to sensitive company data and IT assets. A significant level of concern (43 percent) was targeted at third party business partners and contractors who also have legitimate access requirements to organizational networks. The third and fourth major groups that came in for scrutiny from more than a third of respondents (38 percent) was the range of system, database, and network administrators, and other IT staff who have enhanced access rights to operational systems.
Kellett recommended replacing older systems that have poor security rather than spending a lot of money trying to build security around them.
“Areas where improvements ought to be made include: putting in place a central management approach to provide a single-pain-of-glass that offers a concentrated and consistent view
of each organization’s risk profile and security position. Deliver on the multiple protection requirements for data at rest and data on the move. Provide encryption and integrated key management for sensitive data assets, access control to ensure that only authorized users can get in, and a security intelligence layer that identifies new threats, highlights security deficiencies, monitors user interactions, and operates in line with the risk profile of the organization.”
Verizon’s 2104 Data Breach Investigation Report, said most insider threats have been