Background:

No-Internal-Controls, LLC is a mid-sized pharmaceutical company in the Midwest of the US employing around 150 employees. It has grown over the past decade by merging with other pharmaceutical companies and purchasing smaller firms.

Recently No-Internal-Controls, LLC suffered a ransomware attack. The company was able to recover from the attack with the assistance of a third party IT Services Company.

Attack Analysis:

After collecting evidence and analyzing the attack, the third party was able to recreate the attack.

No-Internal-Controls, LLC has a number of PCs configured for employee training

These training computers use generic logins such as “training1”, “training2”, etc. with passwords of “training1”, “training2”, etc.

The generic logins were not subject to lock out due to incorrect logins

One of the firms purchased by No-Internal-Controls, LLC allowed Remote Desktop connections from the Internet through the firewall to the internal network for remote employees

Due to high employee turnover and lack of documentation, none all of the IT staff were aware of the legacy remote access 

The main office has only a single firewall and no DMZ or bastion host exists to mediate incoming remote desktop connections

The internal network utilized a flat architecture

An attacker discovered the access by use of a port scan and used a dictionary attack to gain access to one of the training computers

The attacker ran a script on the compromised machine to elevate his access privileges and gain administrator access

The attacker installed tools on the compromised host to scan the network and identify network shares

The attacker copied ransomware into the network shares for the accounting department allowing it spread through the network and encrypt accounting files

Critical accounting files were backed up and were recovered, but some incidental department and personal files were lost

Instructions:

You have been hired by No-Internal-Controls, LLC in the newly created role of CISO and have been asked to place priority on mitigating further attacks of this type.

• Suggest one or more policies that would help mitigate against attacks similar to this attack
• Suggest one or more controls to support each policy
• Identify each of the controls as physical, administrative, or technical and preventative, detective, or corrective.
• Keep in mind that No-Internal-Controls, LLC is a mid-sized company with a small IT staff and limited budget
• Do not attempt to write full policies, simply summarize each policy you suggest in one or two sentences. 
• Clearly indicate how each policy you suggest will help mitigate similar attacks and how each control will support the associated policy
• Be sure to follow APA format and provide references to support your key points in the case. Use the book and library resources to find references. Remember references add credibility to writing as well as providing proper credit to your sources. 

Write 2 page essay on the topic Auditing-Purchasing and Inventory Cycles.

Populations of documents are used to sample whether activities are authorized, production was completed and placed in inventory or written off as scrap and that finished goods inventory was produced and properly costed. Examples include. stock records, purchases ledger, goods returned note, goods produced note and check for the signature authorization by the responsible authority.

The auditor examines the travel and expense accounts to verify the supporting documents to determine whether the transactions are correctly stated. The higher authority might abuse the travel and entertainment expenses for personal benefits. The auditor determines whether the expenses were incurred for business purposes and not for personal benefits (Ricchuite, 2005). The poor controls regarding executive reimbursement hinders the purpose of evaluating and reporting on internal control. The evaluation of the internal control will lead to the disclosure of the weak areas in the reimbursement of the top managers. The auditor can use various auditing procedures for auditing various expense accounts including miscellaneous expenses. This assists the auditor in verifying whether the expenses recorded were incurred and that they were accurately recorded in the correct accounting period. The procedures include obtaining all the relevant receipts and documents and checking for authorization and accuracy in recording as explained by Bragg (2009).

The purchasing manager can use their position to defraud the company in multiple ways and the company should install a strong ICS to detect such activities (Kumar and Sharma, 2009). The purchasing managers can collude with third parties (buyers and sellers) to defraud the company. The managers can include unusual purchases that are not included in the operating budget. They can vary the purchase order proficiency