Use the five-step decision-making process (1. develop problem statement, 2. iden

Question

Use the five-step decision-making process (1. develop problem statement, 2. identify, evaluate and choose alternatives, 3. implement decision, 4. evaluate results and 5. ethical achievements) to analyze the following

situations and recommend a course of action. Here is the given scenario "

You are one of the top students in your university’s computer science program of 200

students. You are surprised when you are met after class by two representatives from a

federal intelligence agency. Over dinner, they talk to you about the increasing threat of

cyberterrorist attacks launched on the United States by foreign countries and the need to

counter those attacks. They offer you a position on the agency’s super secret

cyberterrorism unit, at a starting salary 50 percent higher than you know other computer

science graduates are being offered. Your role would be to both develop and defend

against new zero-day exploits that could be used to plant malware in the software used by

the government and military computers. Would such a role be of interest to you? What

questions might you ask to determine if you would accept their offer of employment?

Explanation / Answer

Several different decision-making processes and models were found in the literature.1-7 Descriptions and their relevance are discussed here. The basic components of these models are similar. For instance, the military model occurs in 5 steps.1 It begins with defining the objective in which needs and optimum outcomes are identified. In the second step, all available resources are discussed. Third, a plan is established in which a manager writes down the specific action required. The fourth step involves laying out the course of action so that checkpoints are determined to make sure that objectives are met. The final step is to provide closure in which accomplished objectives are indicated. This model can be used to implement decisions; however, specific details are not adequately described. Statements are ambiguous and lacking in clarity to truly aid managers in making decisions. For instance, in the last step, 'closure is made up of those final benchmarks of success' to indicate that the plan was successful.2 This statement is vague and does not provide managers with direction or adequate information on how to proceed with benchmarking.

The parliamentary model occurs in 8 steps and is similar to the military model. The 8 steps are the following:

(1) establish need,

(2) define the optimum outcome,

(3) conduct a stakeholder review,

(4) list the pros and cons,

(5) make an option review,

(6) review potential consequences,

(7) formulate a step-by-step plan, and

(8) analyze achievement.

Decision making is a problem-solving process that aims to eliminate barriers to achieving individual or organizational goals. By defining problems or determining what the barriers are, then managers can take steps to remove these barriers. However, defining the problem is not an easy task. It can be a time-consuming process. A manager must question the staff and monitor daily activities and tasks to fully investigate the extent of the problem. Dunn 2 suggests that what often appears as a problem may only be a symptom and digging deeper can lead to the real problem.

If I got offer for both develop and defend against new zero-day exploits that could be used to plant malware in the software used by the government and military computers I will except it.

Attacks employing zero-day exploits are often attempted before or on the day that notice of the vulnerability is released to the public; sometimes before the author is aware or has developed and made available corrected code.Zero-day attacks are a severe threat.Malware writers can exploit zero-day vulnerabilities through several different attack vectors. Sometimes, when users visit rogue Web sites, malicious code on the site can exploit vulnerabilities in Web browsers. Web browsers are a particular target for criminals because of their widespread distribution and usage. Cybercriminals can also send malicious e-mail attachments via SMTP, which exploit vulnerabilities in the application opening the attachment. Exploits that take advantage of common file types are numerous and frequent, as evidenced by their increasing appearances in databases. Criminals can engineer malware to take advantage of these file type exploits to compromise attacked systems or steal confidential data.

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