Accounting Information Systems 9th Edition by James Hall

Exercise 11

SYSTEM RISKS AND CONTROLS
Last year ACME Manufacturing commissioned Fly-By-Night Consulting (FBNC) to oversee the implementation of a new information system. Based on FBNC recommendations to establish an "open" environment with a more efficient workflow, the IT professionals at ACME have provided users with relatively free access to the computer center and applications.
Almost since implementation of the system malicious programs, such as viruses, worms, and Trojan horses, have plagued the company and caused minor data corruption. Recently, however, systems problems and hardware failures have caused more severe disruptions and have caused the operating system to crash. The CEO of ACME was also informed that confidential company information may have been printed to hard copy as a result of these crashes and disposed of in the trash. Also, important digital documents appear to have been erased from storage media.
Required
a. Describe operating risks at ACME.
b. Describe the controls that need to be implemented to mitigate the risks.