Legacy systems can become sources of interpersonal conflict within and across or

Question

Legacy systems can become sources of interpersonal conflict within and across organizations especially when the legacy systems have little to no security features built into them but, at the same time provide critically needed support to business operations. A risk assessment can be used to reduce interpersonal conflict by providing an objective evaluation of the risks associated with continuing to use legacy IT systems. The objective evaluation can then also be used to develop strategies for addressing security risks associated with the legacy systems (accept, mitigate, transfer, avoid). Sometimes, interpersonal conflict between managers and between executives can arise because the individuals involved are concerned about potential impacts upon their customers. Thus, it is important to consider how a company's approach to legacy systems (keep / toss) will affect its customer base and ability to continue operations without interruption.

1. Prepare an argument that supports the "decommissioning" of legacy IT systems. (Decommissioning a legacy system can be a form of risk avoidance.) In your argument, identify and discuss two or more security related issues which could be used to justify using this strategy (decommissioning legacy IT systems) to address risk.

2. Next, prepare a counter argument for those same issues (argue against decommissioning). Your counter argument should use one or more of the remaining risk management strategies (accept, mitigate, transfer). Make sure that your selected strategies are also cost-effective or at least cost-neutral (no additional costs).

Explanation / Answer

Answer)

Legacy systems are old systems which were developed by the business or by a third party and are still being used in the business. Legacy systems means applications which are really old developed using technology that have become obsolete in today's world. Thus, we know that in terms of security of the application and data security the legacy systems are not good at all as they have many system and software and application vulnerabilities but in the other sense, they are really important to support the complex business scenarios and both customers and users have confidence of their performance for the time being and their business handling capability. Thus these are really important for business processes.

Argument that supports the "decommissioning" of legacy IT systems:

a) We can avoid many risks and vulnerabilities that exists in the current world scenario and those which pose a threat to the legacy systems. These threats cannot be mitigated unless we update the legacy systems development in a new technology. Thus this can lead to data thefts and compromising of the application.

b) The reason we do not want to re-develop legacy systems is the business use. But, when the legacy system will be compromised, then the business used will anyway not be there and thus the business will fail as being compromised. To avoid this, we should re-develop the system and decommission the legacy system in place.

Counter argument for those same issues (argue against decommissioning):

a) Legacy systems have complex business features and developed properties many of which are very dear to the business and its users and its core functionality. It is old but not non-functional and there are not many security issues that have arisen out of it or gone beyond control. Thus we can use the legacy system without decommissioning it.

b) Implementing newer technologies will not make the users of the system comfortable and it will be an overhead cost for the business to incorporate the new technologies into the business and develop the system. Thus we should accept the legacy system as is, instead of decommissioning using it effectively.

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