Understand Issues Related to use of information system

Legal Issues

- Data Protection Act 1998

- Freedom of information Act 2000

- Computer Misuse Act 1990

Data Protection Act 1998

- Nowadays lots of organisation stores users information from various

medium.

- The data protection act must ensures that the user’s information has been

stored safely and will not be vulnerable to misuse.

Data Protection Act 1998

- The information stored by businesses on database must be:- Obtained Fairly and lawfully

- Used only for the purposes stated during collection

- Adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the intended use

- Accurate and up to date

- Not kept for longer than necessary

- Processed in line with your rights

- Subject to procedures to prevent unlawful processings, accidental loss, destruction and

damage to personal data

Freedom of Information Act 2000

- The Act provides individuals or organisations with the right to request

information held by a public authority.

- Public authority should tell whether it stores information or not

- Information held by public authority should be provided within 20 working

days in requested format

Computer Misuse Act 1990

- Act against certain activities using computers

- Stealing information of person or organisation

- Unauthorised access to computer material

- Unauthorised access to computer systems with intent to commit another

offence

- Unauthorised modification of computer material

Ethical Issues

- Use of Email

- Internet

- Whistle-blowing

- Organisational policies

- Information Ownership

Code of Practice

- Every organisation has it’s own code of practice

- This gives details of what uses can be of the organisation’s computing

facilities

- Main use is to support the purpose of the organisation

- Can also define the extent of personal use permitted

Ethical Issues

- Whistle Blowing- Someone tells another person or company about secret data of company.

- Whistle blowing is covered in the codes of practice for most companies.

- To protect company from loss this should be notified by the employee of the company to

the member of management

- IT administrators are protected from whistle blowing as they are the first to spot it and it

goes through their servers.

Ethical Issues

- Use of Email- Not allowed to threaten, harass

- Not permitted to spamming

- Limited use of email

- Personal uses is often permitted

Ethical Issues

- Use of Internet- Access to inappropriate websites usually banned or filtered out

- Control over content of company web servers

- Limited use of internet for personal purpose

Organisational Policies

- Policies stating how information is treated

- Could be on a “need to know” basis where access to information is

restricted eg: storing data in secure areas

- Hippa Compliances

Information Ownership

- Data should be owned by the department who produced it

- They should be responsible for ensuring that the data is correct consistent

- Often, the people who provide the final information are responsible for it

Operational Issues

- Operational issues are that affect companies on an operational level.

Operational Issues

- Backups- Disaster Management

- Periodic update

- Health And Safety- Regulations for using, using and the position of screens and monitors

- Keyboard, mice, chairs and tables must positioned appropriately

- Computer users are entitled to eye tests

- Computer users should take regular breaks away from the computer

Operational Issues

- Organisation Policies- Keeping information confidential

- Correcting data that is incorrect

- Business Continuance Plan- Plan in case of failure in IT system

- Should continue business in case of failure as well

- Should have additional servers to handle request

Operational Issues

- Costs- Should manage the costs to IT projects

- Total benefits of a project should exceed the total costs

- New Computer equipment and installation

- User testing and training

- Additional IT resources to run the systems

- Cost of getting the new system

- Cost of maintainence of system

Operational Issues

- Impact of Increasing Sophistication of Systems- Today's system are more complex

- Need more trained personnel

- More complex software packages are provided for business experts to build information

system

- Needs domain expert to figure out the problem