Wk 4 Individual Assignment - Project Documentation and Implementation Artifacts [due Mon]

I have identified some problems with cybersecurity, slow online transactions between customers and banking institutions, and customers that my program intends to solve. Also, this project provides a chance for the growth of cybersecurity in the banking industry. The aims and objectives of this project are to enable the banking industry to enhance its competitiveness with other banking industries, enhance cybersecurity, and keep updated with the technological changes through the implementation of this software program. This software is referred to as the Banking Security Software (BSS), specifically designed for the banking industry only for improving security, efficiency, and simplicity of transactions between banking institutions and their customers. The security software will typically prevent attackers from being able to access secured data and networks in a computer system, and in case of a successful attack, it will allow for business continuity.

Industry Background

Banks play a huge role in the economy, where they act as systems of payment. They are the main source of credit for huge swathes of the economy and operate as a safe haven for depositors' funds. This process of intermediation facilitates the matching of deposit and loan supply and gives liquidity to an economy. The current banking industry is a network of financial institutions that have been licensed by state governments to provide banking services such as transfers, storage, extending a credit against, or management of risks related to holding different forms of wealth. The exact amount of financial services given at any particular time depends on the banking institution, time, jurisdiction, economic development, industry’s regulations, and technological advancements. The banking industry has been subject to attacks such as physical theft and now cyber-attacks. People can now hack into servers to gather customer’s personally identifiable information (PII). Therefore, cybersecurity is very critical for banking since the risk of data breaches increases as firms and individuals carry out online transactions. Cybersecurity helps protect customer assets, maintain trust between banks and customers as well as other banking institutions.

Technology Trends

The most significant technology trend in the banking industry is the transformation to digital, particularly online and mobile banking. Due to the unprecedented speed and convenience, most people no longer want to go to physical banks to deal with their transactions. This change has further increased competition in this industry. In addition to mobile banking apps, banks are required to put a temporary hold on cards, scan a fingerprint to log into an account or view recurring charges, etc. online banking has also vastly grown where banks can share the financial information of their customers securely and electronically as long as the customers approve. Moreover, investment banking has developed due to artificial intelligence and Robo-advisors that advises businesses, individuals, and governments on how best to invest their money. For instance, AI can assist in validating a hypothesis of an investment banker to lead to better decisions in the future. Lastly, BaaS platforms allow fintech and other different third parties to create a connection with bank systems through APIs to form banking offerings on top of the provider’s regulated infrastructure. This platform makes banks to gain from fintech that is entering the finance space as it makes them customers instead of competitors (Romānova & Kudinska, 2016).

Project Approach

This project will involve a sequential phase-to-phase relationship approach (waterfall). This entails the requirements phase>Design phase>development phase>testing phase>deployment phase> maintenance phase. This will enhance the control and management of the project and thus mitigate the risks and uncertainty associated with the project. The main aim will be to choose a phase-to-phase relationship that strikes a balance of the stakeholders’ preferences and the project team’s abilities with the general project characteristics. At the end of every phase (decision point), the senior management and relevant stakeholders will authorize a continuation or termination of the project. Also, this approach will take into account some of the business constraints, such as inadequate financial resources and time shortage that may hinder the completion of the project within the required time. Also, there is a possibility for technical constraints that may reduce the design choices, planning, and progress of our project. This approach will be great in that another step will not start unless the previous step has been completed, and there is no need for rework (Van Casteren, 2017).

Selected Vendors

Vendors for network Technology

Cisco was my best selection of vendors based on its renowned reputation with computer networking, its strengths of extremely fast speed, and 24-hour customer service despite its high cost. Cisco offers great security features, and it can serve any size of an organization.

Vendor for Cloud Services

IBM cloud was selected based on its fast speed and ability to enhance customer satisfaction. It also provides services inclusive of the platform as services and infrastructure as service.

Vendor for database

Teradata was selected due to its large size and its ability to handle large volumes of data.

Software application vendor

Sun Guard was chosen as it supports global revenues.

Alternative Approach

Depending on the time schedules, an overlapping phase-to-phase relationship approach might reduce the time consumed. This means that a phase that follows can be initialized before completion of the previous step, however, this approach is risky, and it can demand some rework (Biotto, 2019).

Impact Analysis

This project will affect all levels of the organization, including all external stakeholders and other banking institutions. It will be essential to create awareness of a change from the current technology to all affected parties. This project will be aligned with the business strategies to ensure that the technology positively contributes to the company. Also, employees will be trained on the utilization of this technology to improve its adoption. The operation of current applications will be improved by the new security technology, and it will entail the integration of existing software and security protocols, thus enhancing the overall cybersecurity.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

There is a need to build a new block at the cost of $350,000 to create room for the installation of computers and other technological items required for the project. Also, it will be crucial to get more employees to increase productivity since there are few employees in the IT department, even though this will come at an extra cost of $14,500.

Financial Analysis

· The company will need to purchase a new database system at the cost of $4,356.

· Acquisition of new computers - $4,355

· Staff hiring - $3,465.

· More staff to control the cloud services - $2545.

· Software designing - $90

· Approval by the owner - $40

· Coding - &210

· Testing - $230

Risk analysis

There are numerous risks related to the use of mobile apps as more individuals access their bank accounts through these apps (Gbongli, Peng & Ackah, 2016). Many of these individuals have little to no security, which makes them prone to attacks. Therefore, banking software solutions are critical to avoid such activities of malice. Also, with an upgrade of cybersecurity, hackers have resulted in third-party networks and common banking systems to get access, and as long as these access points are not protected, attackers can easily gain access. Moreover, there has been an increase in the risk for cryptocurrency hacks since this sector is still pretty unsure of how to implement the software of cybersecurity for banking in a rapidly changing market with a higher chance for attackers to grab more currency amounts. Particularly when it constantly jumps in value. Also, for the database, data may be lost via design and tampering, and the data centers may be subjected to disasters or other physical threats. The web server may create a point of vulnerability due to unwanted services, lack of firewalls, and system failure which there may be poor administration of firewalls, which poses a risk.

References

Gbongli, K., Peng, Y., & Ackah, O. (2016). Selection and Ranking of Perceived Risk Associated with Mobile Banking in West Africa: An AHP Approach from Customers’ Perspective. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 7(1), 80-86. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303689746_Selection_and_ranking_of_perceived_risk_associated_with_mobile_banking_in_West_Africa_An_AHP_Approach_from_customers%27_perspective

Romānova, I., & Kudinska, M. (2016). Banking and Fintech: A Challenge or Opportunity? In Contemporary issues in finance: Current challenges from across Europe. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Retrieved from https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/S1569-375920160000098002/full/html

Van Casteren, W. (2017, March 17th). The Waterfall Model and the Agile Methodologies: A comparison by project characteristics. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313768860_The_Waterfall_Model_and_the_Agile_Methodologies_A_comparison_by_project_characteristics_-_short

Biotto, C. (2019). Integration of Overlapped Design and Construction Stages Through Location-based Planning Tools (Doctoral dissertation, University of Huddersfield).

Copyright © 2018 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved.